


One Man's Treasure

by Ryeaugla



Series: Super Smash Chronicles [7]
Category: Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening, Super Smash Brothers, Xenoblade Chronicles
Genre: Androids, Attempted Rape/Non-Con, Computer Programming, Coping with illness, Deus Ex Machina, Discrimination, Heist, Hostage Situations, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Kidnapping, Life Threatening Illness, M/M, Noble Sacrifice, Obsessive Behavior, Plans, Post-Battle, Prison, Rape Aftermath, Robot Sex, Robots, Theft, Unfair Battle, Unlucky Situation, more like Daraen Ex Machina, prison break - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-07
Updated: 2016-07-12
Packaged: 2018-07-12 15:30:32
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7111801
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ryeaugla/pseuds/Ryeaugla
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After missing the bus back to the Super Smash Brothers Mansion following a Smash match, a group of Smashers have to travel through a shady part of the city on foot in order to get back home. However, in doing so, they happen to get tangled up in a local affair and one of their own is captured by a crazed fanatic. Can they save him before it’s too late?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Man in the Tractor

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following a Super Smash Brothers match, a group of friends find themselves missing a bus that would take them back to the mansion where they live. Unfortunately for them, this is hardly the extent of their bad luck, as they get in way over their heads while trying to deal with a crime in progress.

“ **GAME! The winner is… Robin!** ”

“It seems our fates are joined.” The Cyborg Tactician had won a match against Lucario and he was taking a moment to pose with Chrom while a victory fanfare played. The Exalt hadn’t played any kind of role in the battle that had just occurred, mostly due to the fact that it was a For Glory match, it was just randomly decided that he would be there to look cool sometimes at the end of matches. This happened to be one of those times. And yet, once the camera faded to black and everybody was allowed to move again, Robin still couldn’t help but shake Chrom’s hand and give thanks for helping out.

“Robin, that was all you out there.” Chrom chuckled as he gave the white haired cyborg a gentle nudge with his elbow. “I couldn’t have done anything to help even if I wanted to, and you know that.” Robin was quick to shake his head and chuckle a little before responding.

“Oh, I know that.” He said. “I meant thank you for helping me out with that victory pose. It’s not much, but the fact that you still come out to all of my Smash matches means a lot to me.” Of course, Chrom wasn’t the only one who went to every one of Robin’s Smash matches, as the tactician had a small entourage of supporters who went out to accompany him to his matches unless they had other duties that took precedence, such as a concurrent Smash match on another arena. Shulk was another constant supporter ever since the Mechon incident, and, now that they were all on friendly terms with one another, Daraen had become the fourth member of their Smash support group.

“That was a really close match!” Shulk commented as he finally made his way over to where Robin was, Daraen not far behind him. “For a moment, I totally thought you were going to get hit by that Aura Sphere as you were falling back onto the stage.”

“But that’s what air dodging is for!” Daraen added immediately afterward. “Come on, Shulk, you should have a little more faith in Robin. He’s been doing better in the ranked matches than you have, after all.” The Monado wielder crossed his arms and looked away in a huff.

“Don’t rub it in…” Shulk replied coolly. “I’ve had a lot on my mind lately, and it’s been affecting my battling.” Chrom sighed and shook his head.

“Give it a rest, Daraen.” He said. “We all have those days. Or would you rather I remind you about what happened in that one For Glory match against Captain Falcon?” A smirk found its way to Chrom’s face as the smug look slid off Daraen’s. If there had been a tome in the black haired tactician’s hands at the time, it probably would have been lobbed at the Exalt’s head at that moment. During the match in question, the White Mage had completely forgotten just how many times he had locked the F-Zero pilot into a jab combo prior to being launched off stage and couldn’t fully recover due to the fact that he had run out of uses of his Elwind spell and only managed to cast one before the tome flew out of his hands. Both Daraen and his tome fell into the Blast Zone at about the same time. Since then, it had been something all of the other members of their group of friends brought up whenever the White Mage needed to be knocked down a peg. The fact that it was mentioned again here had the end result of Daraen rolling his eyes and crossing his arms. His friends weren’t going to be getting over that any time soon, and he knew it.

“Perhaps we should start heading toward the bus station that'll bring us back home.” Robin finally chimed in. As much as he enjoyed his friends’ banter, everybody else was on their way out of the results room, including the camera crew. Today’s match had taken place in an outdoor arena several miles up the road from the mansion, and everybody who came to watch from the mansion was bused here by city transportation. If they missed the bus, it was going to be another hour or so before another bus arrived to pick them up. Most people didn’t even know why the buses were so scattered apart from one another in this part of town, but they were. The other three young men agreed with Robin and immediately started walking briskly to the bus stop, hoping they hadn't already missed the bus.

Unfortunately, just as they came into sight of the bus, the doors closed. “It's about to leave!” Daraen shouted. “We're going to miss it!”

“Let me catch it!” Shulk shouted as he reached up to grab the red blade that was affixed to his back, prepared to use his Speed Art to zoom over to the bus and ask the driver to wait for another minute for the four of them. The blond seer went literally everywhere with the Monado due to the fact that it kept his health in check. It was also for this reason that Robin reached out and grasped Shulk's hand before he could get a hold of the sword.

“No, Shulk!” Robin said with concern. “We're not in a sanctioned area right now! If you use a Monado Art, you'll use up too much Ether and you might pass out!” Only areas that were specially set aside by the Super Smash Brothers Tournament Committee had Ether Vents that pumped the Bionite energy out and allowed Bionis peoples like Shulk to survive and use Ether Arts comfortably. Outside of them, however, they could easily run out of the energy needed for survival. Shulk especially thrived on these vents (and had been one of the major proponents who had pushed for them in the first place) due to the fact that his body didn't maintain its energy levels well enough on its own, and the Monado kept him from losing too much Ether in places where it wasn't available to draw upon. Realizing that Robin was right, Shulk lowered his hand.

“Then let's run!” Chrom butt in as a response. “Maybe if we're fast enough, we can catch the bus before it sets off!” All four friends agreed with that plan, and so they all started dashing for the bus. Before any of them could get within range to hail it down, though, the vehicle sped off and left them all behind. Everybody took a moment to try to catch their breaths from the mad dash they just made before their thoughts were interrupted by the sound of metal hitting metal. All heads turned toward Robin, who had accidentally bashed a signpost in frustration, apparently having forgotten the enhanced strength from his prosthetic Mechon arms and ended up bending the sign out of shape.

“Damn it!” He hissed. “I can't believe we just barely missed the bus.”

“I'm not waiting around for another hour or so for the next bus.” Daraen huffed as he crossed his arms.

“Guys, it'll probably take less time for us to walk back than it will to wait for another bus.” Shulk chimed in thoughtfully, placing a hand on his chin. “It's only a couple miles up the road. If we walk at a brisk pace, we'll beat the second bus home."

“Well, it gives us something better to do than loiter around waiting for the next bus.” Daraen replied, shrugging his shoulders. “Even if most of us are Smashers, I doubt the locals want us to just mull around here for the next hour or so.” The other two were in agreement with Daraen's logic, so (once Robin straightened out the sign he had accidentally bent out of shape) the four friends set off into the town to start their journey back home.

Now this was a particularly shady part of town that the arena had been set up in. The city planners had hoped that, by putting a highly visited attraction in this shadier part of town, the people who lived in this neighborhood would clean up their act and make the area more presentable. Unfortunately, the opposite occurred, and the locals had tried their best to disrupt events at the arena for a while. That was the whole reason the bus route was set up in the first place as well as why it took over an hour between busses (as only one driver was brave enough to take that dangerous route). Nobody wanted to walk through the area without protection, and even skilled warriors like three Smashers and one supporter would be hard pressed to stay safe in this area. None of the four friends were quite prepared for what might jump out at them in this shady part of the city.

For the first twenty minutes or so, the quartet managed to travel into the main part of town with no issues. The main street was a bit less dingy than the side streets, but the vibrant and clearly not local outfits that the four friends wore stood out and turned some heads. A few unkind verbal jabs were sent their way, but they were doing their very best to ignore them. The further into the area they ventured, the more frequent the taunts became, to a point where it looked like Daraen was going to pull his Levin Sword on the next local to call him a prissy. He was the easiest to anger of the four and was almost ready to lose his cool. However, Shulk was able to stop him before doing anything, allowing them to continue on without making a scene.

Instead, the scene ended up making itself. Several minutes later into the trek, the four guys were stopped by what sounded like an explosion nearby. After taking a moment to try to figure out what was going on, the first clue that it wasn’t something ordinary for this part of town came in the form of a large crowd of locals scurrying out of an alleyway a few streets over. Shouts like “Oh no!” and “Not again!” could barely be heard over the panicking din. Nods were exchanged among the four heroes and they all unsheathed their swords to hurry over and figure out what had made that noise in hopes that it could be stopped before innocent people were hurt.

Upon turning the corner that led to the street where all of the ruckus had been taking place, it became clear that people were running away from what looked like an oversized, bronze tractor that had dug its way out from underground. Whoever was inside the machine was quick to notice that four people had run toward the destructive device rather than away from it. Not only that, but they all seemed to be in brightly colored outfits and brandishing swords. Instead of feeling threatened by it, however, the man inside just started laughing loudly, his voice echoing through the large machine’s speakers.

“What are you kids thinking of doing with those toys?” He guffawed. “Your cosplays are nice, but don’t you think you’re a bit out of your league actually trying to stop crime in those costumes?” Chrom was the first to respond, chuckling softly so only his nearby friends could hear.

“He thinks we’re in cosplay, huh?” He said. “Well, let’s show him what us ‘cosplayers’ are capable of, shall we?”

“That thing…” Daraen’s fists curled as he surveyed the enemy machine. “Is it a Mechon? How did a guy manage to get his hands on it in the first place?” Shulk, who was obviously the most knowledgeable in the group about Mechon due to the fact that they came from his own universe, quickly shook his head.

“No, it’s not a Mechon.” He responded. “The colouration and detailing is wrong for a normal Mechon, and it lacks the glowing lines Metal Face has to be a Faced Mechon. It’s just a machine with a voice box installed. I should be able to cleave through its armour using the Monado without much difficulty, as a result.”

“Speaking of the Monado… Shulk, can you afford to use a Monado Enchant on us without causing too much of a detriment to your health?” Robin asked quietly, his tactical mind immediately starting to come up with a plan to take this guy down. “That vehicle looks sturdy, but it surely can’t be stronger than Mechon armor.”

“I’ll give it a whirl.” Shulk replied, staring at the center of his ruby blade. “If I can only afford to do it to one of us, however, I should focus on Chrom, correct?”

“That’s right.” Robin nodded in response. “The Monado already has the ability to cut through machinery, and Daraen and I can use our tomes and Levin Swords to shock it. Chrom’s Falchion is the least effective weapon against machinery as a result and it needs the Monado Enchant more than the rest of us.”

“What about a plan B in case Shulk can’t use Monado Enchant at all?” Chrom asked. He did not want to be useless in this fight if he didn’t have the help of the enchantment. Daraen, also a strategical genius like his white haired counterpart, was the one to chime in this time with a backup plan for the blue haired lord.

“Try to disrupt the machine’s movements if at all possible.” He ordered. “Slash at its tires, jab the Falchion into obvious joint gaps, anything. This thing is on wheels, so it likely has better mobility than we do. Putting a hamper on that will tip the scales in our favor.” After turning his head toward Chrom, the White Mage added one more thing. “But only pursue that goal if it’s feasibly safe to do so. If you can’t get anywhere near the machine without risking injury, back off and wait until the three of us open up a weak point.” Chrom nodded in response.

“Got it. Shulk, what’s the status on your end?” The center plate of the Sword of the Bionis was glowing an indigo color and a **機** symbol of the same hue was present. Shulk silently stared at his weapon for a few seconds before its wielder finally responded.

“I should be able to cast it on Chrom at the very least.” He said. “Trying to sustain it on all four of us would be catastrophic, however. Especially if I try using any other Monado Arts.” Just then, a loud yawn disrupted the group.

“Are you nerds done chatting to yourselves yet?” The enemy jeered. “You kids actually planning to attack me or are you reconsidering this stupid move? Personally I’d high tail it out of here - you don’t know what you’ll be getting yourselves into.”

“Believe me, we’ve dealt with worse.” Shulk shot back as the sides of his sword flipped down, letting an indigo beam appear in the newly created gap between the two pieces of red metal. He then raised the Monado to about shoulder height and slashed with it at an almost diagonal angle to the side where Chrom was standing in relation to him. “ ** _Monado Enchant!_** ” He cried out as the beam leaped from the Monado onto the Falchion. Once Chrom’s weapon was glowing with Ether energy, all four heroes hurried forward simultaneously to begin their attack. The guy sitting in the machine was in complete shock at what was going on.

“Wait a second… That move… That’s the real Monado?!” Apparently he had watched enough Smash matches to identify Shulk’s weapon of choice. “Okay, screw this shop I was trying to bust into with my trusty, homemade Tractonator, I need to get my hands on that sword instead! Such a beautiful, legendary piece of technology is within reach! I can’t believe it!” Upon hearing the threat, Robin’s drone wings immediately unfolded and he flew out in front of his fiance, growling with disgust.

“You’ll have to go through me if you want to steal the Monado!” He barked. “You’re not the Heir to the Monado, so you have no business laying any kind of claim to it!” However, this defensive threat was responded to with another atypical reaction.

“Great god of gears!” He gasped, practically having turned into a fanboy now. “If that’s the real Monado, that means you’re the real Cyborg Tactician Robin! And that contraption on your back is actually a jetpack disguised as folded up mechanical wings! Oh man… I’ve hit the jackpot today! Ahahaha!” This guy’s weird fan behavior quickly got on Robin’s nerves, and normally he would have just backed off after hearing that kind of thing, but the fact that this guy also wanted to steal Shulk’s sword right out of his hands propelled him into action. Seeing as his drone wings were already unfurled, Robin shot into the air and started swooping around the tractor machine to look for a weak spot from above.

Finally, he rocketed toward the cockpit of the tractor in hopes that he could slice through and hit the guy who was driving the thing. He zoomed closer, closer… and then suddenly stopped in mid-air; close to the cockpit, but just barely out of reach with his Levin Sword. He then attempted to back up in hopes of trying again, but he couldn’t move away either. Looking out his peripheral vision, Robin noticed that there were two large mechanical arms with rows of silver, circular objects attached within surrounding him. The silver objects also seemed to be buzzing and sending powerful vibrations through the air around him.

“What the hell have you done with me?!” Robin yelled as he tried to move from the spot where he had been trapped with little avail. “Let me go!” The man just laughed maniacally for a second before explaining.

“Let you go? Never. You’re going to be added to my collection - the greatest robot collection in the multiverse!” After another couple seconds of laughter, he continued. “I just trapped your beautiful metal frame within a powerful pair of electromagnets. It’s strong enough to suspend thousands of pounds within it and not have the flow of electricity disrupted. Your weight couldn’t possibly be enough to break free, and so that makes you mine now~”

“Robin, no!” Daraen shouted as he and Chrom started bounding up the tractor machine on opposite sides to attack the magnet arms in hopes of freeing their friend. The man driving the machine just scoffed at the attempted attack.

“You think I don’t see what you’re trying to do?” He said. “Take this!” Just then, the electromagnetic arms started rapidly moving back and forth in what looked like a clapping motion, as if trying to shake off the heroes that were climbing up on them. At the same time, as the magnets moved farther apart from one another, Robin was afforded a little bit of movement before the magnets moved back into place and held him steady. Seeing as the arms moved several times in hopes of shaking Daraen and Chrom off, Robin managed to turn himself around in hopes that during one of the ebbs in the electromagnetic power, he would be able to rocket out of his captor’s grasp.

Unfortunately, that opportunity never came. Both Chrom and Daraen slipped off the mechanical arms they were climbing on, and then got smacked away from the machine when it reared back and snapped outward again from the clapping motion. They both were flung through the air and collided hard with the brick walls of the buildings surrounding them. Once gravity kicked back in, they both fell to the ground, completely knocked out from the impact.

“Daraen! Chrom!” Shulk cried out as he brandished the Monado. His gaze was focused on Robin, and he was prepared to destroy the entire machine to save the captive Cyborg Tactician. The Sword of the Bionis was crackling with energy, sending off tiny blue sparks close to the frame of the weapon, reflecting its wielder’s outrage at this situation. “Let. Robin. Go!” He shouted.

“And what are you planning to do, hmm? Come on, attack my machine, I dare you~” He then lowered the arms suspending Robin in place so they were just barely held above ground. Shulk was about to hurry forward and attack them, but a loud shout made him reconsider.

“STOP!” Robin screamed. “Shulk, don’t come any closer to me! It’s a trap!” There was a very worried look on Robin’s face as he looked into Shulk’s eyes. “You can’t afford to lose the Monado and you know that. And the pull of the magnets around me is strong enough to yank it right out of your hands.” Tears tugged at the corners of Robin’s eyes as he continued speaking. “I couldn’t possibly let myself be the reason you lose the Monado… and therefore die! So please… Back off and just accept my capture for now… Find where I’m being taken and get me back without losing the Monado…”

“Robin…” Shulk’s arms lowered and the Monado was barely being held above the ground by this point. He was on the verge of tears himself after hearing the tactician’s plea. Robin was completely right - this was definitely a trap to lay claim to the Monado. And it was for this reason that he threw the sword onto his back again and stepped backward a few steps, staring at the ground the whole time. “...I will not fight you anymore.” He said sadly, but then quickly raised his head once more, the force of the move flicking tears out of his eyes. “But that does not mean I will give you the Monado! Even if you try to come forth and take it from me, I won’t let you have it!”

“Too bad, it’s mine now!” The psycho hissed before laughing insanely. This threat was enough of a cue for Shulk to activate Monado Speed and to turn about face and flee with his increased speed. The machine hurried along behind the seer, but due to its bulky size, it was unable to turn the corner onto the main street fast enough and got stuck between the corners of the street buildings. This was exactly the opportunity Shulk needed to lose that psycho and make sure he got away safely.

But that didn’t change the fact that the man in the tractor machine had still taken Robin captive, and he and his friends needed to find that psycho to save the Cyborg Tactician. As the weight of the whole situation finally caught up to Shulk (as well as exhaustion from using too many Monado Arts without a source of Ether around), he slumped down against a nearby wall, buried his face in his knees, and started to cry. This all could have been avoided if he and his friends weren’t so stupid and hadn’t tried to play hero to these thankless locals.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3849 words. Yeah, you're reading this right, still not ready to go on with Mechonis Mission Zero yet. I haven't had time to play Xenoblade Chronicles thanks to summer classes. Therefore, something not so tightly based on a single game's canon will be worked on as my main project for now instead. And now for some notes:
> 
> 1\. Timeline wise, this story takes place at about the end of January (meaning still no Corrin or Bayonetta yet; they finally get the spotlight in the next story (and by they, I mean just the Corrins due to my lack of knowledge of the Bayonetta series)), but the city does not adhere to wild seasonal temperature changes. Thus, the weather is still temperate despite being the middle of winter, allowing everybody to wear their typical outfits and not freeze to death in January. ~~And by everybody, I mean just Chrom, seeing as Shulk has his sweater and Daraen and Robin have thick coats, whereas Chrom has his right arm uncovered.~~
> 
> 2\. Yes, I'm mostly making fun of Chrom showing up in one of Robin's victory poses at the beginning there. Seeing as Reflet can't fight anymore, she's living vicariously through Chrom, who's been ordered to watch all of Daraen's matches for her. And Daraen always watches Robin's matches because he still considers Robin like his mentor. And Robin always watches Shulk's matches because they're engaged. Thus, the quartet was born. There might be other members of the group eventually, as well.
> 
> 3\. No, I did not forget about what I had Robin say regarding Shulk's Monado Arts at the beginning of the chapter. Come next chapter, it'll be clear that his using Monado Enchant on Chrom and Monado Speed to escape did a number to Shulk. As for why Robin suggested Shulk use Monado Enchant to fight the tractor guy off in spite of what he said earlier, he was expecting the battle to be easier than it actually was, and that it would cause minimal stress for Shulk. Boy, was he ever wrong.
> 
> 4\. The device that was used to capture Robin was based on a video I saw on Facebook not long before I started writing the chapter. Basically, it consisted of a bunch of small but powerful magnets that could lift up small objects without a need for touching them between its two heads, and the object that was held in place vibrated due to the magnetic waves. I wish I had saved the link, because I would have linked it here for you guys to get a better look at it. But yeah, it's basically that, but hundreds of times bigger - big enough to carry a human sized robot in. The original purpose of the magnet arms was actually to carry away a large batch of electronics that the guy was intending to steal from the shop he had broken into before the quartet showed up.


	2. The Iron Zoo

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Following Robin's capture, a very sick Shulk and the rest of his friends retreat back home to recover for the upcoming battle with the Cyborg Tactician's captor. Meanwhile, Robin starts to find out just how obsessed the man who stole him away really is, and what he might come to expect while imprisoned in the man's fortress.

After losing track of Shulk, the fanatic cursed loudly and turned back around toward the hole in the ground that his machine had dug out in order to make its grand appearance. Considering he had managed to collect one of two things he had been trying to get his hands on, it wasn’t a complete loss for him. He rolled by the unconscious bodies of both Chrom and Daraen without paying them any heed. They didn’t have anything he wanted, after all. Not even Chrom’s Falchion that was laying on the ground not too far away from his body warranted any reason to stop. Robin noted this silently as he continued to be ferried away from the scene of the battle against his will. So it wasn’t just any old sword that this wacko was interested in - it was specifically the Monado.

Robin carefully noted the path that was being taken as he was taken underground into a tunnel that had been dug out by the machine. Hopefully he could manage to eventually escape somehow and flee back through the path that they were going through right now.

Unfortunately, when they finally got to their destination, the chances of escape became unimaginably small. Once they had gotten out of the underground tunnels, a large metal door slid back into place over the spot and completely blended in with the rest of the metal flooring. As if that wasn’t bad enough, there was a huge citadel just up ahead surrounded by a heavily guarded barbed wire fence. The large tractor machine had surfaced on the inside of the fence, so it was clear this had been set up by the man himself.

Once inside the citadel, Robin noticed that there were red glyphs spinning around to every side of him and narrow hallways beyond them. Regardless, this place gave him the creeps. He really did not want to be here, but there still hadn’t been an opportunity to escape yet.

The next thing Robin knew, the machine had stopped and its driver had come out to look at him. The guy was a fairly short, dirty man with his left arm and right leg being prosthetic and a metal plate that replaced his jaw and made it look like he had a metal beard. Just one look at this guy was enough to make Robin outraged.

“So you’re the bastard who kidnapped me!” He barked. “I demand that you let me go at once! Master Hand would never allow you to get away with kidnapping a Super Smash Brother!”

“Who cares about that idiotic hand?” The metal bearded man scoffed. “Not even he could break into this fortress! Welcome to your new home!” Before Robin could make an angry comment in return, however, the man tossed some kind of object at him, which collided with his chest and started throwing off electricity into his body. The tactician screamed in agony as he got electrocuted and ended up passing out from the pain.

* * *

“...ulk… Shulk! Please wake up!”

Blue eyes flickered open slowly, barely able to make out something that was black and white in front of his blurred vision. After giving his head a brisk shake several seconds later, Shulk’s eyes finally started working properly again (for the most part) and he realized that the black and white figure in front of him was none other than Daraen. The black haired tactician gave a sigh of relief upon seeing his friend’s eyes open once again.

“Oh, thank goodness…” Daraen said as he offered a hand for Shulk to take so he could get back up onto his feet. It was quickly taken, and the Monado wielder finally rose once more. However, he very nearly fell over a moment later, and Daraen had to act fast to prevent Shulk from falling over onto his face. “Whoa!” He exclaimed as he held on for dear life. “Shulk, are you all right?!”

“...Nuh…” Shulk mumbled almost inaudibly, taking a gasp of air before continuing. “I fee sig…” Chrom frowned and crossed his arms.

“I’m wondering if this is that Ether Deficiency Syndrome that Shulk had warned us about getting if he didn’t have enough Ether.” He noted. “Shulk likely used a lot more Ether than he intended on using and it caught up with him.” Daraen sighed in annoyance as he took another look back at the street where the kidnapping had taken place.

“Well, there goes my idea of hopping into that hole in the ground and pursuing that bastard...” He huffed. “We can't go spelunking with Shulk in this kind of condition. Instead, we're going to have to head back to the mansion before returning here.” Daraen then threw one of Shulk's arms over to Chrom, who barely caught it, but was immensely confused.

“What are you doing throwing an arm at me like this?” Chrom questioned as he looked at Shulk's arm as if it was highly mutated. Daraen gave the blue haired noble an incredulous look.

“You don't expect me to carry Shulk back by myself, do you?” He raised an eyebrow before continuing. “Come on, wrap that arm around your shoulders and help me bring Shulk back home.” The tactician retorted. “We need to make sure he can properly recover in a place where there's actually Ether, if that's really his problem.”

“Spee...” Shulk mumbled as his two friends adjusted themselves so that his arms were draped around their shoulders. “I 'adda use 'Nada Spee to geddaway... He wanna stee 'Nada...” Daraen took a moment to try to decipher the mumbling, but as soon as he figured it out, he did a double take.

“Wait, you seriously used another Monado Art to get away?!” He replied with obvious concern in his voice. “What in Naga's name were you thinking?! Now I'm COMPLETELY convinced that your sickness is due to Ether Deficiency!”

“Daraen, I really don't think we should be pushing Shulk to talk...” Chrom chastised his black haired friend. “He's clearly very weak and needs to save his energy. Let's focus on trying to find somebody who can help us get back to the mansion.” Thus, the tactician and the Exalt started dragging their friend through the streets of the city in hopes that somebody would help them out. Along the way, Shulk ended up passing out from how weak he was, and thus he had no idea just how long it took for Chrom and Daraen to get him back home or how long he had been unconscious for until he woke up again.

 

When he did wake up, Shulk could have sworn he saw something large and red in his blurred vision for a moment followed by a blue glow which caused the red object to disappear, leaving just black and white. Shulk was hit by a wave of deja vu upon seeing the black and white, and immediately assumed that he was staring at a blurred out version of Daraen’s figure. Once he shook his head out and regained full agency of his sight, the Monado wielder realized that his assumption was correct and Daraen was hovering over him with a smile on his face.

“Oh good, you’re finally awake.” The tactician sighed with relief. “I was really worried about you after realizing that you had passed out in the middle of the trip. Even the doctors who took a look at you said you were in pretty bad condition and needed a lot of time to rest up and regain your energy back.”

“...Doctors?” Shulk repeated groggily yet fully enunciated. “Where exactly are we?”

“We’re back at the mansion.” Daraen nodded slowly. “Some cops saw Chrom and I dragging your body through the streets and came over, wondering what we were doing. I think they probably assumed we were doing something shady, but we assured them that you were alive, but in critical condition. Because of that, they allowed us to hop into their police car and they drove us back here, allowing us to quickly get you proper care. You’ve been out for a couple hours since then.”

Shulk tried to sit up, but quickly realized that something was attached to his nose, and Daraen forced him to lay back down at the same time. “Hold on!” He protested. “You shouldn’t get up yet! There’s still a tube pumping Ether rich air through your nose, after all. It’s best you stay put until the doctor says you can move.” Realizing that Daraen was right, Shulk groaned and sat back once again. He quickly tried to change the subject, though.

“Before my eyesight fully took hold again, I saw something strange…” He noted. “I saw something… red. But then it disappeared in a flash of blue light, and you were sitting there behind it. What exactly was that?” Daraen took a moment to frown before he shook his head.

“You must have been hallucinating.” He replied. “I’ve been in here alone for a while, and I haven’t seen anything come in, much less anything red.” Shulk was sure that he really had seen something, but he had just reawakened from passing out from Ether Deficiency, so perhaps he really was hallucinating. For several seconds, the two of them just sat there in silence.

However, the stillness was suddenly broken as Shulk quickly rose to an upright position, very nearly tearing the tube out of his nose while doing so. He gasped loudly while rising, and his eyes had fully constricted from realization. “Robin!” He shouted, redirecting his gaze toward Daraen. “Where's Robin?! Please tell me you guys rescued Robin!” The black haired tactician had a worried look on his face, but not regarding the missing Cyborg Tactician.

“Shulk, I told you to lay down!” He hissed. “No, we haven't saved Robin yet. We don't even know where he's been taken. We were more concerned about you than we were him, however.” Almost immediately, Shulk's fear turned into anger as he reached over and grabbed Daraen by his robe.

“What?!” He barked. “You're not concerned about what that bastard is going to do with Robin?!”

“Shulk, that's not what I said! We were just more worried about you because you were going to die if we didn't help you out!”

“But Robin was kidnapped, for the Bionis' sake!”

“Yes, but considering how that guy acted around Robin, it's safe to assume that he's not getting tortured or anything like that.” Daraen had a point. The man was too much of a fanboy to likely want to hurt Robin. Realizing that the other was in the right with the decision that had been made, Shulk sighed and finally let go of the White Mage's robe.

“...My life was more important than saving Robin.” He said in a somewhat melancholy way. “We'll find Robin eventually, won't we?” Daraen smiled as he gently pushed Shulk back down onto the bed.

“Yes, we definitely will.” He said. “But we're not going to pursue the bastard who took him until you're feeling better. Your health comes first. None of us want you to die.” Shulk slowly nodded his head and closed his eyes to continue resting until his strength had completely returned. Daraen quietly sighed after it looked like Shulk had resumed sleeping and idly reached up to the red teardrop shaped earring dangling from his left ear, batting it back and forth in his hand for a couple seconds as he almost inaudibly added one more sentence to what he had told the seer after repeating it again.

“...None of us want you to die... Me more than anybody else...”

* * *

Robin had no idea just how long he had been out cold for, but two things were certain to him by the time he woke up. One: he had been thrown into what looked like a small jail cell, and two: he now had some kind of device affixed around his neck that was making it a bit harder for him to breathe, but didn’t completely asphyxiate him. In order to try figuring out what was latched around his neck, the tactician hurried over to a shiny piece of metal affixed on the cell wall that was supposed to function as a mirror. In his reflection, he was able to see that the object around his neck was a shiny silver color and had some kind of light attached to it that was flickering green every once in a while.

He couldn’t help but curse quietly to himself as he walked over to the cell door and took a moment to examine it. How was he going to break himself out of the cell and start trying to find out a way to escape the building? His drones had been absconded with, so he couldn’t melt the bar with the powerful fire that came out of the jets. Therefore, he sat back on the bed and put a metal hand on his chin, pondering his predicament.

Suddenly, an idea came to him. He had thought back to the moments leading up to his capture in the first place and remembered punching a signpost in frustration. His hand had taken no damage from the swing, but the signpost was not quite as lucky. The poor thing crumpled in half under his fist and had to be straightened out before the group departed through the city. This time, however, Robin wasn't going to be repairing the metal he planned on bending out of shape.

As such, he wound his arm up and threw a mighty punch at the cell's lock. Unlike the signpost, the lock held fast and Robin's fist just glanced off. The tactician cursed under his breath as he examined the spot where his fist hit to look for any sign of weakness. Absolutely no substantial damage could be seen, however. Then again, this probably wasn't the only cell in the facility, and thus they probably had been made in mind for larger machines wanting to ram their weight into the door. With that in mind, Robin realized that he was going to have to be a bit smarter about how he went about trying to escape.

His new plan ended up not much different from the old one, but instead of launching punches at the gate itself, he decided to assault the hinges instead. And thus, he took a few swings at one of the hinges before backing off to see how far he was getting along with the new plan. Unfortunately, even the hinges were as impenetrable as the gate itself.

“And just what do you think you're doing?” A voice resounded from outside the cell, causing Robin to gasp and jump back in surprise. He was so hellbent on escaping that he hadn't noticed the man with the iron jaw having come by and was now standing right next to the cell. He casually walked over to the gate and tapped on it with his mechanical arm, grinning at his captive within. “Come now, do you really think I'd make a cell door that was easy to bust down? I have so much strong metal to work with that I made these doors more powerful than even your Mechon armor. Now if you would stop banging on the gate and bothering all your neighbors, that would be appreciated.”

“...Neighbors?” Robin inquired, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “What do you mean by neighbors?” Instead of answering the tactician's question right away, the man took a moment to laugh.

“What do you think?” He gloated after finally calming down again. “You're not the only robot on display here. This is a collection that has been in the making for several decades now. And you, my precious little sprocket, are the crown jewel in my collection~” Robin could feel his fists slowly clench the more this guy talked. He really did not like the way this guy treated robots and other mechanical objects as mere collectables. However, instead of getting angry, the tactician gave a sarcastic comment instead.

“You must not have much of a collection then if my disgusting body is the most valuable thing you have.” He jeered.

“Disgusting?!” The man looked like his own body had been insulted instead of Robin's just then. “How can you hate your sleek, gorgeous frame? The perfect combination of strong and svelte... So beautiful~” The man looked like he was going to start drooling as he continued speaking. “Your other frame looked more powerful, but a bit... clunkier. I like this one a bit more.” Robin did have to admit that he liked his Speed Frame better, but only because he didn't have horns on his head or the Mark of Grima in metal form plastered against his chest with his current configuration. What he didn't like about the Speed Frame, however, was all of the skin that was visible because of it, even if that skin was fake. Still, being objectified like this was awful for him.

Unfortunately, it was only going to get worse as the man continued speaking. “I can't wait until your friends show up to hand over what will be the other crown jewel of my collection – the legendary Sword of the Bionis, the Monado!” Robin's hands were shaking from how angry he had become after hearing that.

“What?!” He barked. “You're telling me you plan on throwing Shulk into one of these cells as well?! I won't--” Before Robin could finish, he was interrupted by the man's raucous laughter.

“You actually think I'm going to capture that disrespectful brat on the other end of that sword? Don't make me laugh! I don't want him, I just want the sword!”

“You had no interest in Chrom's Falchion as you passed it by on the way back here.” Robin noted with irritation. “You could have easily taken it, as it was just sitting on the ground.”

“Peh! I don't have an interest in normal swords like that! I'm only interested in _machines_! The Falchion is just an average sword, but the beautiful Monado is also a machine. That's why I want it.”

“And yet you don't want the wielder of the Monado? He's the only one capable of using it, you know.”

“Who said I had any interest in using it? I just want to put it on a pedestal so I can look at it all day. Better used that way than to trash machines like that brat's been doing with it.” That was the final straw that broke Robin's composure. He hurried forward and banged into the cell columns, trying to grab the man in his outrage. However, upon seeing Robin charging for the columns, he took a large step backward out of the tactician's reach.

“Do you seriously think that Shulk's destroying machines just to be a disrespectful brat?!” Robin shouted, brandishing a fist through the cell bars. “No! You have him pegged all wrong! Shulk loves machinery, probably almost as much as you do! He's an engineer, for Naga's sake! The only reason he 'trashes machines' is because they're destroying his home! The Mechon are ravaging Bionis, and he uses the Monado to fight back so that his people don't go extinct! The Monado is far more important for Shulk to have than you for your stupid collection!”

“Silence!” The iron jawed man shot back. “Don't make me set up an Arming Glyph in your cell!” Instead of being threatened by that, however, Robin just gave a look of confusion.

“...An Arming Glyph?” He repeated. “What has that got to do with anything?” The man gave a quick harrumph before starting his explanation.

“I take it you've noticed that device affixed around your neck, have you not?” Robin frowned a little and subconsciously reached up to his neck, fingers gently wrapping around the choker attached there. Not waiting for a verbal response, the man continued. “Well, it's a small but powerful bomb.”

“A bomb?!” The white haired tactician quickly jerked his hand away from the choker as his eyes grew wide with shock.

“Yes, a bomb. However, it's currently disarmed. If you pass through one of the red glyphs set up throughout the facility, though, it'll become armed and explode within seconds. Originally I had intended to put it on your leg like most of the other humanoid shaped robots here, but I quickly realized that your legs are prostheses and that wouldn't stop you. You would just run home and get a new leg, like you did with your other frame. Instead, I put it around your neck because you have human flesh above that point, do you not? If the bomb blows up there, you'll lose your head. And don't try fiddling around with it to remove it either. There's a button currently depressed on the inside of the device that, if allowed to spring back up, will cause the bomb to immediately blow up that way too.” Robin gasped silently and took a step backward as everything sank in. That was why there were circular red glyphs set up everywhere – to keep the captive robots from escaping or going into off limits areas should they get out of their cells.

“No...” He said quietly, hands clasping up around his neck without touching the bomb choker. Seeing Robin's distress caused the man to laugh once again.

“I take it you'll be a good little prize then.” The man's iron jaw seemed to curl up into an evil grin. “Now, just sit back on your little cot and look beautiful. Wahahaha!” And with that, he started walking away, still laughing evilly. Robin's desire to escape had all but disappeared after being told about the bomb on his neck, and so he just slowly ambled back to the cot and sat down on it before burying his face in his hands. Even if Shulk broke into the fortress and found him, how would the two escape with that bomb strapped to his neck? Not only that, but the iron jawed man wanted the Monado without any care for what happened to Shulk. He would literally snatch it out of the blond seer's grasp and leave him to die.

Robin was extremely conflicted with what he wanted to have happen. Yes, he wanted Shulk to come in and save him, but he didn't want Shulk to get caught and have the Monado stolen, leading to his death. Robin had convinced himself that, despite how much Shulk loved him, he just wasn't worth that kind of trouble.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3764 words. Starting to see a bit of a pattern here? No? Oh well. Notes:
> 
> 1\. So Xenoblade never really explains what happens to somebody who suffers from having too little Ether in their body, but I interpreted it as something akin to dehydration. I kind of made up symptoms here that aren't akin to dehydration, however, such as a loss of balance, blurred vision, and slurred speech.
> 
> 2\. I know, I broke the cardinal rule of "show, don't tell" when it came to how Shulk's group got back home from the middle of town, but seeing as narrative was a third person focused on Shulk, it wouldn't make sense for the narrator to suddenly switch focus to one of the other two.
> 
> 3\. Say what you want about Daraen being a suspicious character with all his strange talk, but as the last story proved, he's not malicious. Even that last line of his is supposed to cement this - he cares about Shulk.
> 
> 4\. The idea for the large metal fortress with magic glyphs that restrict areas where prisoners can go due to bombs attached to their bodies was taken from Fort Gandala in Tales of Xillia (I'm actually a huge Tales Series fan, if you didn't know that). I liked that idea quite a bit and decided to use it here as an extra layer of threat toward Robin.
> 
> 5\. I liked [this drawing](http://mahdotsuki.tumblr.com/post/136723935651) that Tumblr user mahdotsuki did of Robin's Grim Frame (as I suppose I'll be calling it now) that I've accepted it as his canon appearance prior to being given the Speed Frame. So yeah, Mark of Grima in metal form indeed. Slightly related, maybe one day I'll end up drawing Robin with his Speed Frame, as it's a bit different than Fiora's because it's meant for a male to use instead of a female.


	3. Hope-Giving Friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin makes a few friends while trying to do something about the monotony of the situation he's stuck in, and who also need help escaping from the iron bearded man's prison. Meanwhile, Daraen has finally figured out where the prison is and goes to tell a still recovering Shulk.

Several days had (probably) gone by at this point - Robin couldn’t tell just how many, considering he didn’t have a clock installed within his mechanical body, but it felt like he had spent countless hours just sitting around doing nothing. Most of the time, he was just curled up on his cot and silently lamenting the situation he was in. More than once, his eyes had closed and he dreamed about being free again and back with the man he loved more than anything. Robin would do anything to see Shulk’s serene, smiling face once more.

And yet, sometimes he had terrible nightmares as well. Not the usual kind surrounding Grima’s return and Shulk’s corruption, but a different nightmare brought on by what the man with the iron beard had said about what he planned to do with Shulk and the Monado. He could clearly see the man’s greedy eyes as he jerked the red Sword of the Bionis out of its wielder’s grasp, causing Shulk to fall to the ground dead. Deep down, Robin knew that stealing the Monado from Shulk wouldn’t result in instantaneous death (he had set the Monado down before and it didn’t affect him immediately, after all), but his fears had manifested in that unrealistic nightmare. All to further the feelings of unease that he possessed when it came to his captivity.

However, today was a little different than the norm. A strange noise managed to rouse Robin’s attention, and it caused him to sit up and look around for the cause. Normally he would have just ignored it, but what was odd about this noise is that it seemed to come from the thick wall behind him, hissing suspiciously. Was there another robot in another cell doing something in there behind him?

Just then, part of the wall fell forward, causing Robin to jump from surprise and scurry away to the farthest corner of his bed from the wall, curling up close as if some kind of monster was going to attack any stray limbs that he didn’t have brought in close to his stomach. A second later, what appeared to be a girl with long blonde hair, blue eyes, and thick antennae replacing her ears strode in with a blowtorch in her hand. That explained the hissing noise, at the very least. Her eyes looked empty, as if they were lifeless, but immediately illuminated as her head quickly snapped toward Robin’s curled up body.

“You.” The girl said in a succinct way as she continued staring at Robin without blinking. Her stilted way of speaking definitely pointed to her being a robot, so she had to be another prisoner in the facility. Sure enough, as Robin uncurled himself, he got a good look at the robot girl’s leg and noticed a bomb much like the one around his own neck. He then pointed to his face and addressed her with a confused tone.

“...Me?” He returned. “Who are you? How did you get here to begin with?” The girl’s expression did not change at all as she robotically answered his first question, seemingly ignoring the second.

“I am KLR-5200.” She replied. “Please state your make and serial number.” Robin raised an eyebrow as he took another look at KLR-5200.

“Erm, I don’t HAVE a make or serial number…” He said, finally standing up. “I’m a human with robotic body parts.”

“Then I believe you should have a name instead.” KLR-5200 clarified, unabashed. “Please give your name.”

“O-oh, right…” The tactician rubbed the back of his head with one of his mechanical arms. “My name is Robin Sadik.”

“Greetings, Robin Sadik.” The robot girl replied using the same vocal inflection Robin had used in his introduction, which made him frown a little. “I have been ordered to bring you with me to meet my master.”

“Your master?” Robin repeated. “You mean Ol’ Ironbeard? Forget it. I’m not going anywhere near that nutcase.”

“My master is not the man who has captured us here, if that is what you are saying.” KLR-5200 finally turned around toward the wall she had destroyed. “Please follow me, Robin Sadik.”

“Can you please just call me Robin? I don’t like being called by my surname…” After all, it brought back bad memories of his father, Validar, and the terrible things he did in the name of the Fell Dragon Grima. The android gave no verbal response, but merely started heading out of the hole in the wall. Figuring he had nothing better to do than follow KLR-5200, he hurried in after her.

After what felt like ten minutes of stumbling around in the dark, Robin literally tumbled out of a hole that he fell through along the path and into what looked like another cell. Fortunately, it looked like this was the correct place to be, as KLR-5200 was standing on the other side of the cell alongside a very tall, silver man with a strange fixture on his head. The man was the first to react, panicking slightly and stumbling back a couple steps.

“N-no way!” He stuttered. “How did that guy end up capturing one of Egil’s Faced Mechon?!” Robin’s ears immediately perked up after hearing the word ‘Mechon’, and he rose to his feet quickly.

“Wait, you know what Mechon are?!” Robin asked, finally getting a good look at the man. He did a double take and immediately realized that this man looked a lot like that silver man on Mechonis who had turned him into this mechanical monstrosity he was now. As such, he wanted the other to confirm it. “You’re a Mechonis denizen, aren’t you?”

The silver man nodded his head slowly. “Y-yes…” He answered. “I am indeed a Machina… How did the man who captured us manage to get you out of your Face unit? And… you’re not going to eliminate me like other Mechon, are you?” Robin backed up a step and shook his head.

“Ol’ Ironbeard didn’t take me out of my Face unit.” He replied. “It was actually destroyed several months ago and I’ve been living outside the unit ever since.” And good riddance too - if Robin never heard anything about Obsidian Face for the rest of his life, it would still be too soon. He quickly continued as he took a step forward once more. “But no, I’m not being controlled by the leader of Mechonis. I won’t kill you.” The Machina sighed with relief and finally stepped forward to examine Robin’s Mechon body.

“...A Speed Frame…” He muttered several seconds later, hand on his chin. “Yes, this design was originally intended for Homs that needed prosthetic limbs and still wanted to have a considerable amount of speed, not wanting to get weighed down by dense Mechonite armour. Can’t believe what Egil’s done with it, though…”

“...Egil?” Robin hadn’t heard the man mention ‘Egil’s Faced Mechon’ before due to the fact that he was still reeling from the tumble he had taken. The Machina nodded his head.

“Yes, Egil. You know, the leader of Mechonis. The one who probably made your Mechon body.” The tactician frowned upon finally getting a name for that face he had imprinted in the back of his mind. Egil… Shulk’s sworn enemy. However, before Robin could get caught up in his bad memories, KLR-5200 finally spoke up again.

“He is called Robin Sadik.” She droned. “I broke him out of cell D16.” Before Robin could tell the android that he didn’t want to have his surname mentioned again, the Machina took one of his mechanical hands and started shaking it.

“Well then, Robin.” Thankfully he hadn’t repeated the same mistake as his android helper. “You can call me Voniluk. I’m sure you’re already well acquainted with Klaire, from the sounds of things.”

“Klaire?” The tactician was confused by that name. “Who’s Klaire?”

“I am KLR-5200 - Klaire.” The android girl answered. “Master Voniluk gave me that name.”

“...You never mentioned you had a name outside of KLR-5200…” Robin sighed as he stared at Klaire. At least ‘Klaire’ rolled off the tongue better than ‘KLR-5200’.

“KLR sounds a lot like the Homs name ‘Claire’ when spoken aloud.” Voniluk explained his reasoning for the name as he strode back over next to Klaire. “And thus I called her that to save me time and energy. But if you spelled it out, you would use a K instead of C, considering her make name starts with a K. I digress, however. Let’s talk about you, Robin.”

“What about me?”

“I overheard that man - you called him Ol’ Ironbeard, I believe? That works for now.” Voniluk shook his head before continuing. “Anyway, I overheard Ol’ Ironbeard talking about how he added a prize jewel to his collection - a Cyborg Tactician. Klaire ran diagnostics on the facility and found out that cell D16 was now occupied when it hadn’t been before, so we assumed that we would find our Cyborg Tactician there. You certainly fit the bill of a cyborg, but are you actually a tactician too?” Robin inhaled deeply in order to puff out his chest a little as he gave the answer to the Machina’s question.

“You bet I am!” He answered proudly. “I’m the Grandmaster Tactician of Ylisse, strategical confidant of King Chrom Lowell, Exalt of the Halidom of Ylisse. I led the Ylissean army against Regna Ferox, Valm, and Plegia and managed to win those battles with minimal losses.” After he finished bragging, Robin finally noticed the confused look on Voniluk’s face.

“...Ylisse?” The Machina questioned. “Regna Ferox? Plegia? What are these places that you’re talking about? I haven’t heard of Bionis colonies by those names…” The tactician briskly shook his head.

“Oh no, I’m not actually from Bionis.” He answered. “I’m not even a Homs. I come from an entirely different world. I just got surrounded by Mechon while spending time on Bionis, which resulted in me getting captured and reconfigured into one of Egil’s Faced Mechon.” The tall silver man shook his head slowly after taking a silent moment to overlook Robin’s Mechon body again.

“Hard to believe that Egil would have gone through all the effort to make a Faced Mechon unit for an alien from an entirely different world…” He pondered. “He must have had a good reason for doing so…” Robin looked down at his metal feet and sighed.

“...He did.” He admitted in a low voice. “I’m in a romantic relationship with the Heir to the Monado. Egil wanted to use me to manipulate Shulk into giving up the Monado.” Voniluk looked absolutely shocked to hear this news.

“...You’re in love with the Heir to the Monado?!” He said with keen interest. “An alien in love with the Heir to the Monado… I’ve definitely heard it all now…” Voniluk paced around the room for a little bit before looking back at Robin. “So, where exactly is she, then?”

“Where who is?” Robin asked, confused.

“The Heir to the Monado, of course!” The Machina raised his arms incredulously, as if he had spoken some universal truth that Robin hadn’t understood. “Surely the Monado wielder must have had something to say about Ironbeard trying to add you to his collection, didn’t she?” The white haired mage shook his head.

“...The Heir to the Monado isn’t female.” He clarified. “Shulk is a guy. I’m bisexual.” After all, he did have a wife before falling in love with Shulk, so he wasn’t purely gay. Voniluk took a moment to clear his throat.

“O-oh…” The silver man said with embarrassment clearly present on his face. “My apologies. I made an incorrect assumption. I have not seen the Heir to the Monado, so he could have been literally anything as far as I knew - even a Nopon. I assume he’s not, though.” Robin nodded briskly.

“Shulk is a Homs, yes.” The mage replied. “And I’m sure he’s on his way here to rescue me any day now.”

“I sure hope so…” Voniluk began pacing around the room again for a moment after he finished speaking. Several seconds of silence later, he finally spoke up again as he swooped over toward Robin’s backside. “Wait, what exactly is this hole in your neck, Robin? It looks like a plug had been here at one point.” The tactician reached up to his neck where he knew the plug had been, trying to feel for the hole in spite of not having any feeling in his fingers.

“You can see the hole there?” He said. “There was supposed to be something plugged in there…”

“No, there’s definitely a hole in there now.” Robin couldn’t see it, but Voniluk motioned for Klaire to come over to where he was. She had been silently standing in the same spot this whole time, as if awaiting orders from Voniluk. A second later, the Machina was whispering something in her ear, which Robin couldn’t quite hear. The only indication that something was going to happen was her voice sounding out from behind him.

“Affirmative.” She said in a monotone voice. “Plug type detected.”

“...Plug type?” Robin repeated. “What in Naga’s name are yo-- gyaaah!” Suddenly, he felt the sensation of electricity coursing into his body from an outside source entering through his neck, and he realized that something had been plugged into the slot on his neck. “What are you doing?!”

“Don’t worry!” Voniluk reassured the tactician. “I’m not going to mess anything up. I need your help after all. I’m just intrigued about the kind of programming Egil added to your body, so excuse my curiosity.” Robin felt a little violated because a plug had been forced into his neck, but he was also curious as to what his true capabilities as a Mechon were, and this might be one way of finding out.

“...If you find out anything interesting, don’t be afraid to tell me.” He said as calmly as he could, considering how awkward the situation was for him. The Machina quietly nodded his head as he continued looking over a screen that was now in his hands. He was silent for a moment before he finally spoke up again with his findings.

“Well, most of the code was written in some sort of encrypted foreign language made up of four letters in different combinations, which is what I’m assuming is your ‘human code’.” He replied. “As such, I didn’t touch any of that. I did find some other code that wasn’t encrypted, but looked like it had been damaged by something.”

“Did you do anything to that?” Robin asked, wondering why there was damaged coding in his system.

“Damaged code has been 100% repaired.” Klaire’s monotone voice chipped in just then, answering Robin’s question. A second later, the sensation of the electricity flowing into his metal body disappeared, and Robin quickly assumed that the plug in his neck had been removed. As such, he spun back around and looked at the Machina, who smiled back at him.

“Yep, good as new.” He said. “It looked like the code had something to do with extra schema functions that only work with your Mechon body, and they should work as expected once more.” The word ‘schema’ was enough to make Robin realize what had been repaired (as well as why that code was damaged in the first place), and an idea came to mind while he smiled excitedly.

“In that case, I know how we’re going to get out of here!” He announced. “I’ve used those schemas in the past, and they’ve saved me before. Here, let me show you. Remote operation, activate!” Just then, Robin’s eyes changed color from brown to white with gray crosshairs as he fell backward into Voniluk’s arms.

“Robin!” He yelped, quickly turning to the blonde android. “Is he okay, Klaire?!”

“Scanning…” She stated in a monotone as her eyes turned red for a moment and then back to their original blue color. “Everything appears to be in order. Robin Sadik has reinstalled his consciousness into another nearby source, however.”

“Reinstalled his consciousness?” The Machina repeated. “Where is his consciousness, then?”

“Approaching this cell in 5, 4, 3, 2…” Exactly on cue, Robin’s drones flew into sight and hovered in front of the cell that they were all contained within. Voniluk stared at the floating pack for a second before reaching out between two of the bars to pull it inside.

Upon feeling the silver man’s hand wrap around it, the drone’s wings folded back in to become more compact - that way, it could actually fit between the bars. Once they were pulled inside, however, the jet pack swung open once more and attached itself to its owner’s back, which caused Robin’s eyes to revert back to their original brown hue as his consciousness loaded back into his main body.

“...Heh, see?” He chuckled as he sat up. “I was able to control my drones from where they had been stored away by that iron bearded bastard and I brought them back here. Now that I have these again, it should make escaping a little bit easier.” After all, given enough clearance, he could fly over Arming Glyphs once more. Before Voniluk could celebrate this discovery, a loud buzzer sounded, and his resulting response was a lot more panicked.

“Oh no!” He cried. “Robin, you need to get back to your cell immediately! Ironbeard is back from wherever he went! If he finds you in here, all three of us will get in trouble!” He then turned to his android assistant. “Klaire, escort Robin back to cell D16, and then make your way back to your own cell afterward. And posthaste!”

“Affirmative.” The android answered before quickly grasping Robin’s hand. “Target location: cell D16.” She then pulled him quickly through the hole in the wall to get him back where he was supposed to be. When they were nearly at their location, she stopped and pushed Robin forward. “Cell D16 is right beyond here.” She said. “I must hurry back to Cell C19 now. We will meet again, Robin Sadik.” Before Robin could correct Klaire about his name yet again, she started zooming away in the opposite direction. As such, he just sighed loudly before walking the rest of the distance back to the lonely cell where he was supposed to be imprisoned.

Unfortunately for Robin, he had a nasty surprise waiting for him as he returned. He yelped loudly as he stepped back into the cell and immediately spotted the man with the iron beard staring back at him.

“Where did you disappear to?!” The man barked. There was no playing down the fact that Robin had literally crawled out of a hole that had been busted out of the wall of his cell, and he started backing up toward the hole as if to run away. However, the man quickly noticed what Robin was doing and chucked something into the cell behind him. A moment later, it unfolded and activated an Arming Glyph in front of the hole in the wall, effectively blocking escape. Robin gasped and jumped back away from the glyph, not realizing how close he was to his cot and falling over backward onto it, banging the back of his head hard against the steel wall in doing so.

“Owww…” The tactician groaned, rubbing his head as he felt his eyesight going fuzzy from the force of the impact. While Robin was disorientated by the head injury, the iron bearded man helped himself into the cell and quickly locked the door behind him, an evil smile visible on his face as he lumbered over to his prisoner sitting uncomfortably upon his cot.

“You’ve been a very naughty little robot, haven’t you?” He stated in a low voice as he pulled a horseshoe magnet out of one of his pockets and then grabbed one of Robin’s arms, forcing it down onto the metal cot and slapping the magnet across the top of his wrist so that his hand was trapped inside the hole of the U shaped magnet. After a little wrestling, the iron bearded man also managed to push Robin’s other hand down onto the cot and trapped it within another horseshoe magnet as well. Not even Robin’s Mechon strength was enough to pull against the powerful magnetism and he was stuck.

“Let me go!” Robin cried out in distress as he continued pulling up against the makeshift cuffs on his wrists to no avail. “Somebody, help me!”

“Nobody can help you now…” The man chuckled evilly. “You’ll be at my mercy soon enough, my prized possession!” As Robin tried once again to pull against the horseshoe magnets, he failed to notice the guy moving around behind him until there was another sensation of electricity entering his body through his neck, causing him to shout in fear as the man started messing around with his Mechon coding.

Thanks to Voniluk, all of Robin’s control schema had been fixed - all of them. Including one that would easily be exploited by the iron bearded man for his own demented purposes…

* * *

“Shulk!” Daraen quickly hurried into the infirmary room where the blond haired swordsman was still resting from the events of the other day. Upon hearing his name, sapphire eyes quickly darted over to the black haired tactician, and Shulk quickly noticed that there was a smile on his friend’s face.

“What happened?” Shulk asked. “From the looks of things, I doubt it’s bad news…” Daraen briskly nodded his head.

“It is good news!” He said. “The aerial scan of the city finally came back, and I think we’ve found the location of that guy who took Robin!” The Monado wielder did a double take and sat up.

“Seriously? Where is he? How are you so sure that’s where he is?”

“Look.” Daraen set out a bunch of pictures that were taken from a bird’s eye view. “Because we know that guy hoards machines and stuff, we put a metal detecting lens over the camera. That way, if there’s an abnormally large amount of metal that’s detected in a remote area, it’s most likely what we’re looking for. After all, I doubt a guy like that bastard set up base somewhere noticeable where people could see his tractor machine appear and disappear.”

“...So where did you find a place like that?” Shulk asked, having yet to see anything decisive on the pictures he was looking over while the White Mage spoke. It soon became clear that Daraen had been holding in his hand onto the one picture that had the place they were looking for, as he set it down atop the others and pointed to an especially bright spot in the middle of what looked like a clearing with little scraps here and there due to the camera lens.

“Here.” He said as he stood up straight again. “The guy’s set his base up in the middle of a junkyard. Nobody has seen him come or go because his place is completely surrounded on all sides by piles of garbage. We now have reason to believe he started out collecting metal scraps from the garbage piles and eventually got tired of trash picking and started stealing new parts and technologies from stores.”

“I see…” Shulk replied as he set the photos aside and then threw off the cover of his infirmary cot. “Very well, let’s go.”

“Wait a second!” Daraen protested. “Are you seriously clear to go? You very nearly died the other day!”

“I’ve been clear to go for a while.” Shulk waved his friend off. “I’ve just been spending time in here so that the doctors can do a little studying of my condition while in a controlled setting. They’re trying to find me a more permanent cure for my body’s abnormal Ether loss than the Monado.”

“...So you should stay and continue to be involved in the testing.” The black haired mage insisted. “They’re trying to help you.”

“I’ll come back here once Robin’s been brought back to the mansion.” Shulk replied adamantly as he pushed past Daraen. “This time, we’ll save Robin. I just know we will.”

“But your Ether! You can’t use Monado Arts outside of the mansion!”

“Relax, Daraen, I have this.” Shulk turned back and showed off a pouch that was attached to his right hip. “Inside the pouch are several Water Ether Crystals, which have enough pure Ether power to sustain my health on their own for days, or provide the Monado enough Ether to use several Arts without impacting my health. Hopefully I won’t need more than just a couple of Monado Arts to bust into that junkyard hovel and bust back out with Robin in tow.” Daraen facepalmed and sighed. He knew that there was no convincing Shulk to not go through with this while he was in this adamant state of mind.

“...Okay, but you’re not going alone.” He replied. “I’m coming with you. Two heads are better than one, you know?”

“In that case, let’s get moving, Daraen.” Shulk gave a thumbs up, which Daraen quickly returned before hurrying over to the blond haired swordsman as the two departed from the infirmary. As much as the White Mage also wanted Chrom to come with the two of them, he knew that the Exalt was with Reflet today, helping her deal with some of the complications of her abnormal pregnancy, and so it was up to the two of them to save their friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4251 words. I've been distracted by other things somewhat lately, but I haven't forgotten about this story. Notes:
> 
> 1\. Regarding names given in this chapter, A) KLR-5200 is just a random robotic sounding name that would translate into being Klaire because of how the letters sound when spoken aloud. The 5200 doesn't have any kind of important meaning. B) "Sadik" means "loyal" in Turkish. Considering Validar is supposed to be the most loyal Grimleal priest, it would make sense that his given surname would represent his loyalty. Robin probably found out about the name after being controlled by Validar to steal the Fire Emblem in the original canon, and considering his wife is dead due to his doing, he wouldn't feel comfortable taking her surname, and so he's stuck with his father's ~~until he marries Shulk and takes 'Soss' as his surname instead.~~ As for why Turkish, Plegia is a desert country, so I figured taking a word as a surname from a real world desert country (to some extent) language was fitting. C) "Ironbeard" is obviously a nickname due to the fact that nobody knows the guy's real name. It also makes him sound like a pirate, which is fitting because he plundered everything that's in his place. And D) Voniluk is just a random name I got off Seventh Sanctum's "Dark Elf" name generator that sounded like a good Machina name. Considering other Machina in canon have names like Neonik, Shilx, and Miqol, to name a few, Voniluk sounds like it would fit in just fine among them.
> 
> 2\. My headcanon for Faced Mechon frames is that they were originally created to help Homs deal with physical disabilities back when Homs and Machina were still friends and before the Bionis attacked the Mechonis and started the war between the titans. That's what Voniluk is referring to when he's examining Robin's Speed Frame, as he's old enough to remember how things were before the war began.
> 
> 3\. Yes, in this universe, Robin is bisexual, and always has been. He leaned more toward women at first because he felt pressured to do so by societal standards ~~despite totally having a crush on Chrom~~ and ended up marrying a woman because of this. However, upon losing her to his stupid miscalculation, Robin started to develop a fear of being in a relationship with another woman, as he was afraid she would end up dying in the same way as his first wife. Hence why he was lonely before encountering Shulk and realizing that he now had a preference for men.
> 
> 4\. The strange code with four letters that Voniluk ran into while looking through Robin's coding is a reference to DNA coding and how it has four different types of nucleotides in different combinations to correspond to different proteins. I'm a nerd, I totally admit it. Also I had to take a genetics class last summer, so I'm applying a little bit of knowledge I took away from that class here.
> 
> 5\. If you can remember all the different program schema Robin had before electrocuting himself with the Monado, you might be able to predict where things are going. And yes, that M rating is going to apply very soon, which is another hint.


	4. A Human, Not a Robot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin wakes up after his encounter with Ironbeard, and things quickly go from bad to worse when he makes a terrible realization. Because of this, Voniluk is determined to get Robin out of the facility no matter what, but Robin refuses to let anybody sacrifice themselves for his sake. However, a sacrifice isn't even needed, as Shulk and Daraen bust into the facility the next morning, but all does not go according to plan...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, here it is. This is the reason why this whole story has an M rating.

“...ik… Robin Sadik… Do you copy?”

Robin's eyes slowly opened, but remained blurry once they fluttered open. His entire body hurt, and he didn't feel like moving anywhere. His eyes refused to focus on anything as he mumbled something completely incoherent, to which a familiar feminine voice replied.

“I do not understand.” Klaire's voice hummed nearby. “I repeat, do you copy, Robin Sadik?” The android then moved in front of Robin's eyesight, finally giving him something for his eyes to focus on besides monochromatic gray. A second later, he shook his head out as he tried to snap out of his funk. Unfortunately, this also accomplished making his head throb even more, and he groaned in pain. Robin tried to raise one of his hands to his head, but he quickly realized that both of his wrists were pinned onto his metal cot by powerful magnets. He attempted to pull against them, but made no progress in doing so, causing him to sigh exasperatedly and look over at the android girl.

“Klaire, please remove these magnets from my bed.” He ordered. “I'm stuck and I can't move because of them.”

“Affirmative.” Came the monotone answer before Klaire quickly set to work pulling against the magnets on the tactician's wrists. About a minute later, she had successfully accomplished the task of freeing Robin's arms from their magnetic restraints, which allowed him to move freely once more. The first thing he did upon having his hands free was raise a hand to his forehead and try to steady his throbbing skull. Seeing as his head was still made from natural human flesh and bone, he was still susceptible to headaches, and they were one thing he wished that being turned into a Mechon had gotten rid of but didn't.

“Ugh...” Robin groaned, hand clasped over his eyes. “Klaire, how long has it been since we last met?”

“Five hours, thirty two minutes, seven seconds, and twenty three milliseconds. Master Voniluk asked me to return to get you because the landlord has gone to bed and Master Voniluk did not know if you knew which cell he was in.”

“...Just five and a half hours would have been enough.” The tactician shook his head, though more toward his disgust in having been asleep for almost all that time rather than Klaire's overly detailed answer. “I can't believe I've been out for that long... What in Naga's name hit me anyway?” Robin's thoughts started rifling through his memories, trying to pinpoint what he had last been doing before falling unconscious.

And then he remembered. He remembered why he had found himself with his hands pinned down onto his bed, why his head hurt so much.

Robin gasped as he pushed off of the cot, trying to get away from the location where he had been trapped by the man with the iron beard. In doing so, the tactician realized that his situation was far worse than he thought it was.

The sound of something sticky splattering against the ground could be heard against the dead silence of the facility during the nighttime hours. The cell was dimly lit, but Robin could immediately tell that the source of the sound was a white liquid.

“W-what... What is that?” He asked rhetorically, panicking a bit in his mind as he immediately assumed the worst. Klaire, not realizing that Robin didn't want an answer to his question, switched her eyes to scanning mode and immediately gave a response.

“Scan has determined that the mystery liquid contains human genetic material.”

If there had been anything in Robin's stomach, he would have probably vomited on the spot. However, he had not eaten in days because he didn't need to as a Mechon, and so there was nothing to regurgitate. Regardless, his eyes still constricted as small as they could go and his eyes and ears lost focus. All he could hear were his own thoughts repeating the obvious, tragic truth over and over again.

_You've been raped, Robin._

As much as he wanted to scream in ultimate despair, he knew that he would disrupt everybody upon doing so, including the man who raped him. And the last thing he wanted was to get Klaire in trouble for just being there at the wrong time. That and his punishment for screaming in the middle of the night might be getting raped again, which was the last thing that he wanted to have happen when he was still trying to recover from the first instance.

Therefore, Robin's reaction was to sink to his knees and dig his metallic fingers through his hair while hyperventilating and involuntarily crying. He was literally having a panic attack right now because of the situation he had been forced into. Klaire did not seem to understand the magnitude of what had happened to the tactician, which was obvious from the innocent question that came from her next.

“Would you prefer Master Voniluk to come here instead?” Klaire asked. Robin shook his head, shedding tears left and right upon doing so. He then struggled to stand up, using the cot for support because his knees weren't quite working properly right now.

“...No.” The tactician said slowly, trying to enunciate every word and stop hyperventilating. “I need to get out of here. The air smells like semen and I need to get away from where it happened for a while.” Curse his human nose for still working like it did before getting his Mechon body, especially at a time like this. Klaire noticed that Robin was struggling with the basic action of standing, and thus she helped him to his feet and started walking him to the second hole in his cell's back wall she had created due to the first one having been blocked off by an Arming Glyph.

“I will assist you back to Master Voniluk's cell.” Klaire announced. “You do not seem steady enough to navigate through the cell system on your own.”

“Thank you...” Robin muttered, pushing himself into Klaire's arms. He needed support right now, both physically and emotionally. Seeing as the one person he wanted comforting from the most was nowhere nearby, he would have to make do with the android who probably didn't even know what love was. Oh, what Robin would give to have Shulk appear right in front of him and pull him into a tight, loving hug. However, that would only happen in his wildest dreams and he knew that.

In what felt like eons later, Robin and Klaire found themselves at the cell where the Machina Voniluk was being held. The silver man immediately noticed the tactician's less than ideal condition and had him promptly lay down on his cot in order to get off his feet. “What happened?” Came the obvious inquiry as to why Robin was in such distress.

“Robin Sadik was engaged in sexual activity with the landlord of the building, with a 94.6% chance of veracity.” Robin was too caught up with his feelings to tell Klaire to stop using his surname, and instead just nodded to confirm what she said was true.

“That's right...” He said quietly, staring up at the ceiling of the cell. “He came into my cell, locked it behind him, threw an Arming Glyph into the hole that Klaire had created before when she first got me, trapped my wrists under horseshoe magnets, plugged something into my neck, and then had his way with me while I was unable to move and my free thoughts were compromised.” The Machina's heart sank as he heard the story of what happened, sitting down next to Robin and gently placing a metal hand onto the other's hair.

“I'm so sorry...” He apologized in a low voice. “This is my fault for spending too much time keeping you away from your cell. He caught you having left, didn't he?” Robin nodded slowly, which made Voniluk sigh. As much as he didn't want to pry, there was an important question that came to mind. “Was it your first time with anybody?”

“...No.” Robin answered, closing his eyes and allowing tears to roll down his cheeks. “I used to have a wife... Most beautiful woman in Ylisse... She and I went at it several times before she got cut down due to my stupidity. I even have reason to believe that she was pregnant with my child before dying...” His first child, at least – Morgan had appeared to be too young to have been born then, after all. Even though Robin hadn't been a virgin, that still didn't change the fact that the incident was terrible, and Voniluk wanted to help his new friend get away from the bastard who hurt him as quickly as possible.

“Next time Ironbeard leaves, we're getting you out of this place.” The Machina responded with a low voice. “I can't allow you to stay here knowing what he's done and will likely do again with you.” Robin's eyes quickly opened and he sat up after hearing that, quickly turning to face Voniluk.

“How?” He asked. “That bastard took my drones back, and it's likely they're under lock and key now! I was going to use them to melt the hinges of the cell and then fly over the glyphs to find where they're being controlled to turn it off, thereby freeing all of us!” The silver man sighed as he looked over at the cell door.

“I don't know how we're going to get out.” He replied. “You're the tactician, not me. I'm still determined to make sure you leave this place as soon as you can, though. Even if it means losing a limb for you. I know Klaire would too.” Robin quietly gasped as his hand reached up to the bomb on his own neck, and he shook his head a second later to protest the plan.

“No!” He hissed. “I'm going to get all of us out in one piece! I refuse to let anybody sacrifice themselves for my sake!” Flashbacks of his wife's death were playing through Robin's mind – she had sacrificed herself to save his life, after all. She wanted to make sure the Risen didn't bring his dead body back to Plegia to be used in the ritual that would revive the Fell Dragon and spell doom for the world. Robin shook his head and apologized afterward. “...I'm sorry. I just don't want anybody getting hurt if it's not necessary...”

“...I understand.” Voniluk responded as he idly wandered about the cell. “In that case, all I can do is trust you to come up with something. But please, you should really get out of here as soon as you can. I don't want you getting hurt like you did just a few hours ago again.” Robin stood up and nodded his head as he moved toward the hole in the wall.

“Thank you for your concern.” He said. “I'll try to come up with something.” Until then, he figured he should clean up his cell and try to get some sleep, even if it was plagued by nightmares brought on by the trauma of what happened to him.

 

The next day, Robin hadn't slept well at all thanks to what happened. Regardless, he was still busily trying to come up with an idea in spite of his tiredness. Something that would allow him, Klaire, and Voniluk to get out of the complex in one piece. He was trying to figure out if the blowtorch that Klaire had used to bust down his wall would be strong enough to burn through the metal bars, but he assumed that Voniluk had probably ordered Klaire to try that already. Even so, he was going to ask anyway in hopes that they could make something of it.

His other thought was to try to find a cell that wasn't occupied and would hopefully still have the cell door open and just tear out a hole in the wall of that room and just make a mad dash through the open gate.

There was still the matter of the Arming Glyphs, however. Those made things a lot more difficult than they needed to be. Once they were out of the cells, the three of them couldn't just make a mad dash for the door, seeing as the hallways where Ironbeard didn't want them to be were blocked off by the red glyphs. Even Robin's drones were being held behind a glyphed passageway, a quick analysis of the building's map had discovered. As Robin had expected, his drones were properly locked up now so that he couldn't fly them back to his own cell with remote control anymore – he was going to have to physically get inside the room where the drones were to retrieve them. Just what could Robin do to get everybody out because of that?

Either way, he wanted to discuss the first part of his plan with Voniluk, and thus he moved aside the destroyed piece of wall that allowed him to go into the passageway behind all the cells and hurried inside. He had all but remembered how to get from his cell back to where his friend was by this point, and navigated the narrow area himself this time.

Before Robin made it all the way to the Machina's cell, however, an alarm started going off from outside the tunnel, but was loud enough to be heard from where he was. Robin's heart would have done a flip upon hearing the noise had he still had a human heart, but he still wanted to get out of the tunnel. Seeing as Voniluk's room was closer than Robin's own, he made a mad dash for that cell, hurrying into the room and very nearly scaring the Machina half to death upon doing so.

“Oh thank Meyneth it's just you, Robin...” Voniluk sighed with relief, speaking louder than normal so that Robin could hear him over the klaxons that were still blaring. “I was wondering if one of Ironbeard's patrol bots had caught wind of our meetings and came to do something about it!”

“Yes yes, it's just me!” Robin replied with a panicky voice, half yelling because of the alarm still resounding. “Do you know why that alarm is going off?”

“It's an intruder alert!” The Machina replied loudly. “Somebody uninvited has barged into the building! And I have reason to believe that it's the Heir to the Monado!” Yet again Robin's heart would have done a flip if it could.

“Really?” He asked. “Do you really think it's Shulk?!”

“You were the one who said he was probably coming to rescue you!” Voniluk replied. “You should probably go back to your own cell in case the Heir to the Monado looks for you there! If it really is him, you can finally get out of here!”

“But what about you?”

“Don't worry about me! Klaire and I will be fine! It's more important for you to get out! Now go!” With that, Robin got pushed out of the room, Voniluk insisting that he should wait back in his own cell in hopes that Shulk would come by and bust him out. What Voniluk hadn't told Robin, however, was the real reason he didn't want the tactician to stay – he was afraid that Shulk would kill him if he caught wind that Voniluk was from Mechonis.

* * *

“I'll take care of the oncoming bots, you just go ahead on your own!”

“Daraen, are you mad?!” Shulk protested, gesticulating wildly to the black haired tactician. “You don't know what you're up against! I don't want you getting killed!”

“I'll be fine!” Daraen brandished his Levin Sword and took out a small robot with a jolt of lightning that had been approaching the two of them. “I can hold them off myself, promise! Now go find Robin!” Shulk sighed loudly, but he admitted to himself that the faster it took to find and rescue Robin, the fewer enemies Daraen would have to deal with on his own. And that was what convinced the Monado wielder to hurry away down one of the hallways blocked off by an Arming Glyph, making sure to destroy the device that was creating the glyph in the first place before going through.

Shulk had no idea where Robin could possibly be located in a place like this, and thus he decided to systematically go about looking for any signs of the Cyborg Tactician. He hurried down row after row of cells, quickly peeking into each one and sometimes calling out the name of his friend as he hurried through the building.

“Robin!” He shouted aloud, hoping for some kind of response. “Robin, where are you?!”

“Are you referring to Robin Sadik?” A monotone female voice responded eventually to Shulk calling out the name over and over again. Upon hearing that somebody knew the tactician, the Monado wielder's heart gave a start and he hurried over in the direction where the voice came from, noticing a girl with long blond hair and empty blue eyes staring back at him. “I know where Robin Sadik is being held.”

“Yes, that's exactly who I'm looking for! Where is he?!” Shulk replied frantically. “Please, I need to find him as soon as possible!” To give the girl incentive for helping him out, Shulk thrust the Monado into the lock of her cell, melting it with the high powered Ether beam and causing it to fling open. The girl quickly exited her now-destroyed cell and bowed thankfully to her rescuer.

“Thank you for freeing me.” She replied. “In return, I will tell you where Robin Sadik is. He is being held in cell D16.”

“And where are we in relation to D16?” Shulk inquired.

“This is cell C19. The row behind me is B and the row in front is D.” The Monado wielder took both of the android girl's hands and shook them briskly for a second before letting go.

“Thank you oh so much for your assistance.” He replied. “I destroyed that red glowing glyph that was in the front hallway, so you can probably escape that way and get out of this place for good.”

“I will get Master Voniluk first, and then both of us will leave.” The girl replied before bowing. “Thank you for your assistance.” She then hurried away in the direction of the row behind her where her master was being held. Shulk had bigger things to worry about than the android girl reuniting with her master, and so he dashed away to row D and started looking at the numbers on the cells to figure out which one was 16.

Finally he found it. And, sure enough, inside cell D16 was none other than the Cyborg Tactician.

“ROBIN!” Shulk practically shouted at the top of his lungs as he saw the man he loved sitting there on a cot inside the cell. Robin's head immediately turned upon hearing the familiar voice, and he gasped loudly upon realizing that Voniluk had been right in his guess that Shulk really was here to save him.

“Shulk!” Robin launched off his bed and eagerly anticipated being freed. “You're actually here! Thank Naga!”

“Hold on!” The seer cried out as he jabbed his sword into the lock that stood between the two of them. It was unable to resist the heat and power of pure Ether and melted away, allowing the door to be opened at last. Robin took no time to launch himself out of the cell and into Shulk's arms after the door swung open.

However, Robin's emotions were getting the best of him. He literally tackled Shulk to the ground, causing the Monado to fly out of his grasp and spiral several feet away across the floor, snapping shut now that it wasn't being held by its wielder anymore. The force of the tackle also managed to knock the wind out of Shulk's lungs, and he wheezed in pain from the action. “Robin...” He whispered, unable to speak any louder. “Please get off me... I can't breathe...”

“You have no idea how much I missed you while I was stuck inside that cell!” Robin's pleading voice replied. “I love you so much! I don't want to ever let you go!” By this point, the tactician's eyes had changed from their natural brown to a light pink as he continued tightly hugging his beloved seer, even uncomfortably so.

“Ouch...” Shulk hissed. “Save it for when we're back at the mansion... I missed you too, but this is not the time or the place...”

“I thought I smelled a rat~” A voice that was familiar to both Shulk and Robin resounded from the seer's left. Sure enough, Ironbeard was standing over the Monado, grinning at the poor Homs that was pinned down by his overenthusiastic lover. He reached down and picked up the red sword off the ground before continuing. “I was wondering how I was going to manage to get the Monado from you, but it looks like your tactician friend did the hard work for me. Why don't you two just spend some time getting reacquainted with one another?” He then turned and looked at Robin, noticing the pink hue in his eyes and remembering what had happened the night prior. “Oh, Robin~ Why don't you show your boyfriend just how much you truly love him, hmm?”

“Yes, I love you with all of my heart, Shulk!” Robin replied, still squeezing the seer. “I want you to be with me forever!” Shulk started to squirm in Robin's grasp, quickly realizing that something was wrong.

“...Robin, stop it!” He hissed. “This isn't like you! Let me go! That man's going to take my s--”

“Take you?” Robin interrupted, apparently having misheard while in his abnormal state. “If that's what you really want me to do to prove I love you, I'll do it. I'll take you right here and now! Anything for you!”

“No!” Shulk yelped, grabbing onto Robin's wrists to try to stop him. “That's not what I said! If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times – we're not ready for that kind of relationship!” However, between Shulk being winded and the fact that Robin's Mechon strength was already greater than Shulk's own, the seer was unable to stop Robin from reaching down to his pants. Shulk quickly readjusted his grip so that he was holding onto his trousers, pulling weakly against Robin's strength to keep them from being pulled off.

“Come on, Shulk...” Robin sighed seductively. “You know we can't do this while you've still got your pants on.”

“Robin, stop it!” Shulk was starting to cry as he felt himself losing his grip. “I don't want this! Let go of my trousers!” He looked up into Robin's eyes and noticed the pink hue through his own vision that was bleary with fearful tears. “Please, don't let your Mechon programming control you! This is one of those control schema, isn't it? Your human mind is stronger than your Mechon programming, I just know it! Use your own mind to realize that this is wrong! I can't stop you like this... Please...” Shulk quietly sobbed as he felt his hands slip and the mindless machine reach up yet again to pull down on the seer's undergarments.

There was nothing that Shulk could do to make Robin not mount him. He closed his eyes and anticipated the worst.

But the worst never came.

“...What in Naga's name am I doing?!” Robin's panicked voice cried out right before he went through with it. “Oh gods... Shulk, no! Please tell me I didn't...” The seer's eyes fluttered open again, and he blinked tears out of his eyes. He noticed that Robin's eyes had returned to their usual chocolate brown hue and realized that the tactician had snapped back to his own free thoughts just in the nick of time. Except Robin apparently had no recollection of anything that happened while his eyes had changed hue and instantly assumed that he had raped the man he loved. Shulk briskly shook his head as he pulled himself into Robin's arms.

“No, you didn't.” He said as calmly as he could in spite of how fast his heart was pounding inside his chest. “You almost did, but you snapped out of it just in time.” Trusting what Shulk said was true, Robin tightly hugged the Monado wielder and sobbed into his shoulder.

“Dear Naga, I can't believe what I almost did!” He cried. “I'm a dangerous robot! It was a mistake allowing me to live this way!” Shulk briskly shook his head, causing his strawlike hair to rub against Robin's chin as he continued bawling.

“No, Robin.” He said serenely. “You are a human, not a robot. Your human conscience is stronger than your computer coding, and it was enough to stop you from making a terrible mistake. I trust your human strength, and you should too.” Shulk then pulled his head away from Robin's neck and then pulled him back in to give him a long, passionate kiss. It started off timid and fearful, but Robin's inhibitions left him and he returned the affection passionately while his hands reached down and gently pulled Shulk's lower body garments back to where they were supposed to be and then curled around his back after that was finished. Once Shulk broke off the kiss, he looked lovingly into the tactician's eyes and continued speaking. “You are the bravest, strongest human I know. That's part of why I love you so much.”

“And you're the one keeping me strong.” Robin sighed as he continued to hold onto Shulk lovingly. “I'll never hurt you again.”

“Then how about we pick ourselves off this hard metal floor and go after the guy who stole the Monado? You know I need it for the Ether it provides.” Once the seriousness of the situation clicked, Robin immediately picked himself off the ground and stood Shulk up next to him, making sure the seer was steady on his own feet before letting go.

“That bastard will pay for taking your sword.” Robin said with determination. “I won't let you die, Shulk, I promise.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 4455 words. I know this was a bit of a touchy subject to address, but I think I handled it maturely enough. And there's definitely going to be more side effects to what happened in not only later chapters, but later stories as well. Notes:
> 
> 1\. So basically the rule of thumb for Robin's Mechon body regarding what's still intact from his human body and what's been replaced with machinery is if it exists as part of his head or face, it functions like it did back when he was fully human, but if it involves a part that's further down than his chin, it's been modified. Therefore, he can smell properly, but has mechanical lungs. He can taste food, but he can't digest it, and so on and so forth.
> 
> 2\. So after thinking about it, I was wondering how the building would be set up in order to have a crawlspace where Robin and Klaire can go through and get from row to row, and I figured that the easiest way to have this layout would be to have the rows set up like prongs coming out of the letter E, if that makes sense - open on one end and connected on the other.
> 
> 3\. So by this point, I have 100% decided who Robin's former wife is, and yes, it is one of the mothers who gives birth to another one of the future children. Which one is it though? You'll find out soon, hopefully. Remember that Robin's wife is not Sumia or Lissa, as they're married to Chrom and Frederick, respectively. All of the others are definite possibilities, though. Him saying she's the "most beautiful woman in Ylisse" isn't supposed to particularly indicate that she's from Ylisse, by the way, though she very well might be at the same time.
> 
> 4\. Daraen's hardly idling about at the entrance and letting Shulk just do his own thing - there are plenty of bots loyal to Ironbeard and they're trying to take him out to no avail. How is Daraen managing to deal with all of them himself? Only time will tell.
> 
> 5\. Say hello to the first 'canon timeline' appearance of what Pepper likes to call "Sex Mode"! And of course it's being misused here, and was brought on by a combination of excessive love and joy toward Shulk as well as fear from what had happened to him previously. Add selective hearing to that and it's a recipe for trouble. Had Robin not stopped himself from mounting Shulk, he probably would have never forgiven himself and distanced himself from Shulk until depression sank in so deep that he would kill himself. Ouch.


	5. The End of the Terror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin may be free, but Ironbeard has made off with the Monado. It's up to Robin and Shulk to work together to get the legendary Sword of the Bionis back before Shulk's Ether problems cause him to pass out - or worse.

Robin gently wrapped one metal hand around Shulk's wrist and started pulling him through the facility. After all, he had a better idea as to where his drones were than Shulk did. Once they got the drones back, it was just a matter of finding Ironbeard and fighting him to get the Monado back. Even though Robin still had a bomb around his neck, Shulk did not, and he could pass through Arming Glyphs without any kind of consequence. Having Shulk unlock the drones on the other side of the glyph so Robin could retrieve them was his current plan. They were both lucky that Ironbeard had left Robin to his own devices, fully expecting him to completely incapacitate Shulk for far longer than he had actually done so.

They probably ran for about a minute before Shulk yanked back on his wrist, causing his arm to come loose from Robin's grasp. The tactician didn't physically feel Shulk pull himself free, but rather felt his arm being tugged backward, which was what caused him to stop and turn back around, wondering what was going on. He gasped a little as he saw Shulk doubled over on himself with his hands on his knees and panting heavily.

"G-give me... a second..." Shulk breathlessly mustered as he continued to hyperventilate. "Can't... breathe..." He hadn't fully recovered since getting the wind knocked out of his lungs by Robin earlier, and the fact that he was without the Monado right now meant that his health was only going to decline further as time went on. Shulk hadn't truly gotten back to full health since the previous incident where he ended up using too much Ether and passed out, so this was only exacerbating his previous issues. Seeing Shulk as helpless as he was right now made Robin's heart pang with guilt. It was all his fault in more ways than one that Shulk was in this fragile condition, and so he made his way back over to where Shulk was standing before speaking.

"I can carry you until I need your help if you want it." After all, Robin's physical strength in his Mechon form was immense. He would have no trouble carrying Shulk in his arms if he needed to do so. Shulk shook his head while continuing to breathe shallowly as one hand dug through a pouch attached to his right hip and pulled out a blue stone that had been contained within.

"I'll be... fine... Lemme just..." Shulk pressed the stone up against his chest and inhaled deeply before closing his eyes. A second later, his hand started glowing light blue, quickly followed by the stone following suit. The cool blue light emanating from the stone illuminated the whole area around Shulk as it became clear that this was powerful magic. Even Robin felt at ease just basking in the glow of the aura despite how much danger he and Shulk were in right now. Several seconds later, the glow faded out and Shulk stood up straight again, a healthy sheen apparent in his eyes and no longer hyperventilating. It was miraculous what a simple stone could do, and Robin was in awe.

"...What was that?" Robin questioned once the display had ended. Shulk gave a bubbly grin as he put what remained of the stone back into his pouch, then answered the question.

"That was a Water Ether Crystal." Shulk replied with a nod. "Doctors back at the mansion managed to get their hands on some for me, and I've been keeping them in a pouch to help take care of my health while out on this mission. I just focused my Light Heal Art through the crystal, and that's what resulted in that healing aura you probably felt just now." Robin slowly nodded his head.

"Yeah, I definitely felt that." He commented. "When combined with an Ether Crystal, your healing Art is actually very powerful." He then offered a hand for Shulk to take. "But let's try to get the Monado back ASAP so you don't have to heavily rely on using magic to keep your health in check. I've got a plan and everything." A wide smile found its way to Shulk's face as he took Robin's hand.

"There's that expert tactician I love." He said atop a giggle. "I trust your plans, and I'll do whatever you want me to." Robin couldn't help but smile back at Shulk. Just looking into the joyful eyes of the man he loved with his whole heart made everything seem like it was going to be all right for the two of them. If Shulk had utmost faith in his plans, Robin had no reason not to be confident in them. As such, he continued pulling the Monado wielder through the prison until they got to a hallway blocked off by a spinning red Arming Glyph. Shulk looked a little apprehensive about the glyph and looked over at Robin.

"...I used the Monado to destroy one of these in order to get into this place..." He noted with a frown. "I assume it's dangerous, right? Is there any way around this?" Robin reached up to his neck and tapped the choker that was attached before nodding slowly while explaining.

"These glyphs are used to activate the bombs attached to our robot bodies." The tactician explained. "If I went through it, this green light would turn red and then blow up, taking my human head out and killing me on the spot."

"Wait, you're wearing a bomb choker?!" Shulk looked immensely concerned. "I can try to get it off for you!"

"There's a button on the inside of the choker. If it springs up again, the bomb will go off that way too."

"Oh..." Shulk's mood dampened immediately. "I'm sorry that I can't help you then..." Robin briskly shook his head and then reached out to cup Shulk's in his metal hands before pulling him forward and craning his neck around so that he could place a gentle kiss on the blond's neck, just above the turtleneck collar of his sweater. After doing so, he continued holding Shulk's head as he forced the two of them to stare into each other's eyes.

"No, Shulk." He spoke slowly and with determination. "You'll be more than enough of a help for me. Because you don't have a bomb attached to your body, you can pass through the glyph without consequence." The Monado wielder gasped slightly and then placed his hands atop the metal limbs that were holding onto his head.

"I see. So there's something you want from the other side of the glyph and you're going to send me in to do whatever it takes to get it done." Robin nodded once as it became clear that they were getting to be on the same page at this point.

"That's precisely it." The ivory haired male replied. "On the other side of that glyph somewhere, my drones are locked up. I want you to figure out where they are, destroy the lock, and bring my drones back here so I can fly again." It was now Shulk's turn to nod as he gave a determined smile, fully aware of the plan Robin had in mind by this point.

"All right." The seer gently pulled Robin's hands off his face and lowered them to chest height in front of both of them. "I'll find them as quickly as I can. You'll be on guard out here, I'm assuming?"

"You bet. I may not be armed, but my Mechon fists still pack quite a punch if I need to throw one at an enemy."

"I'll try to ensure that won't be needed." And with that, Shulk finally let go of Robin's hands before leaning forward to steal a brief kiss from the tactician. After doing so, he leaped over the device that was projecting the Arming Glyph onto the passageway, completely unaffected by it due to a lack of bomb on his body. He then disappeared down the hallway, running as fast as he could in search of Robin's drones. Meanwhile, the tactician spun around and started scanning the area for any sign of trouble. Granted, there was no way for Robin to know if Shulk was going to run into any trouble while on the other side of the glyph, but considering none of the robots should be able to go in there for the same reason Robin couldn't, he was sure Shulk was safe.

* * *

It was unusually dark in this back area where the drones were supposed to be contained. Shulk could barely see anything, and if he raised his hand in front of his face, he had a feeling that he probably wouldn't be able to see it that well. As such, he stumbled about the dark for a little while, hoping to find some kind of light switch that would turn on and illuminate the area and thus make it easier to find the drones.

Several steps later, lights suddenly flickered on, very nearly blinding Shulk for a moment due to the suddenness of the increased amount of light. He held a hand up over his eyes for a moment to let his eyes adjust to the new lighting, finally lowering it once he wasn't squinting anymore. This place looked a lot like a museum display, with many different mechanical objects behind glass boxes. And somewhere among these rows of glass was supposed to be Robin's drones.

Finally, Shulk found what he had come into this room to look for. Behind glass panes that looked especially thick compared to the other objects in the room was a display of Robin's Grim Drones, chained in place in two spots by sturdy looking links. A frown creased the seer's face as he continued staring at the display. Even if he somehow got through the thick glass, how would he be able to get the chains off? If he had the Monado, it would be as easy as jabbing the sword's Ether beam through the chains and they would melt away in an instant, releasing the drones from their secured spot. However, without the Sword of the Bionis, it was going to be much harder to get them free. There was some kind of keypad attached to the pedestal that the drones were attached to, but Shulk had no idea what the password could possibly be. Sure, he could try literally every combination of four numbers, but he would be there all day as he tried each one in succession. That and if he got the password wrong, he had no idea whether an alarm would sound, alerting Ironbeard to the fact that he was back here.

Unfortunately for Shulk, he wasn't going to have to worry about alerting Ironbeard, as his attention had already been drawn to the gallery room by the fact that the lights were on. They were motion sensitive, so the fact that they were on meant that something was moving inside the room. The man quietly entered the room, looking for the rat who had tripped the lights. It didn't take long to find him, however. Shulk was so intent on trying to figure out his problem with the drones that he didn't even hear Ironbeard sneaking around behind him until it was too late. A metal hand came down upon the Monado wielder's head, causing him to collapse into an unconscious heap. Ironbeard laughed darkly for a moment before he quickly picked his victim up off the ground and brought him into another room that was back behind the Arming Glyph.

"You." The man ordered as he dropped the unconscious body of the blond into the arms of a shadowy figure. "Keep a good hold of that boy I just gave you. I'm going to need him for something very soon. Just got to... aha!" A camera had found Robin standing guard near the glyph, looking around aimlessly. He didn't seem to be aware of the camera, by the looks of things. "Well, let's go. Stay behind me, and don't come into view until I clap my hands. And if that kid wakes up, make sure he doesn't weasel out of your grasp. Heheheh~"

* * *

After what felt like about fifteen minutes had elapsed, Robin started to worry if Shulk was having more trouble dealing with the lock on his drones than originally anticipated. He didn't have the Monado, so his only other option was to use his bare hands, as Robin knew he was incapable of using any Ether magic outside of a weak healing spell. Homs were not very magical beings at all, so it was fortunate that Shulk even had his healing spell to begin with.

As if to make things worse, a familiar, insane laugh could be heard behind Robin, causing him to gasp loudly and spin around. Sure enough, Ironbeard was standing there before him with a confident grin on his face and his arms crossed, prosthetic limb atop the real one. "Well well, what's a pretty little robot like you doing just standing around here?" He taunted. "Shouldn't you be trying to get out of this place? Or do you like it here too much to want to leave?"

"You bastard!" Robin hissed, eyes immediately switching to a red hue upon blinking. "I'll destroy you for what you've done! I'll smack you so hard, that iron jaw of yours will come off!" Even though Ironbeard knew that Robin wasn't just spewing an empty threat, he continued grinning at the Mechon tactician without flinching. Instead, he just started laughing again.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you~" He warned, finally uncrossing his arms in order to clap twice. "You should be a good little robot and obey me."

"Give me one reason why I should obey you." Robin growled. He had no interest in doing anything that Ironbeard wanted him to do. At the same time, he noticed that another individual had entered the area, and his eyes darted over to them. It was an android girl who looked a lot like Klaire, except with short brown hair, green eyes, and green metal highlights rather than Klaire's blue. However, what drew Robin's attention more than her similarities to Klaire was what the android girl was holding onto.

"What should I do with this prisoner, Master?" The android girl replied in the same monotone as Klaire. Held in her arms was the prisoner in question: Shulk. No wonder he hadn't returned - he had gotten incapacitated and captured by Ironbeard! The Monado wielder looked a bit disorientated as he struggled in vain to get out of his captor's arms. A moment later, Shulk cast an apologetic look over at his partner, whose eyes quickly changed color from red to green once everything sunk in.

"Shulk!" Robin yelled as his anger quickly turned into concern. Emerald eyes darted from Shulk to Ironbeard and back again as the man gave his order.

"Put the prisoner at blade point." Ironbeard ordered. "Do not hurt him yet. I want to use him to get what I want."

"Yes Master." The android replied as one of her arms quickly transformed into a long blade, which she promptly placed against Shulk's neck. He immediately stopped squirming and gasped quietly as fear and realization toward the grimness of his situation overtook his face and he looked at Robin again.

"R-Robin!" Shulk stuttered. "Please help me!"

"Heh!" Ironbeard scoffed. "You heard him, Robin. He wants you to help him~ In order to do that, surrender yourself back to me. As a bonus, I'll even throw the meddling kid into your cell with you so you can live out the rest of his life together - it'll probably be quite short, knowing what you said about him and his weakness without the Monado before~ Of course, if you refuse, his life's going to be cut even shorter thanks to getting a blade through the throat. Wouldn't want that, would you?" Upon hearing that ultimatum, Robin gasped and then lowered his head as his eyes changed back to their natural brown hue.

"...You're right..." He said sadly. "Shulk isn't going to live much longer without the Monado..."

"...So we're gonna get the Monado BACK!" Everybody gasped upon hearing a voice emanating from Robin's left, turning their heads in the direction the voice came from. A moment later, a white blur streaked into sight, smacking into the brunette android girl and sending her flying across the metal floor and Shulk sliding several feet away from her. Robin's eyes lit up with hope as he stared at the hero who had suddenly appeared just then.

"Daraen!" Robin cheered. "You arrived in the nick of time!" The black haired tactician turned his head toward Robin and gave him a confident grin.

"Had a feeling something funny was going on, so I did a little investigation." He explained as he turned toward Ironbeard. "Heard some weird noises coming from this direction and... well..." Daraen brandished his Levin Sword for a moment before jabbing the tip forward to touch the man's metal jaw. "Looks like I got here just in time for some ass kicking~"

"Robin!" Shulk recovered from Daraen's attack first and threw himself back into the white haired tactician's metal arms to give him a relieved hug before turning his head to face the other tactician. "Thank you so much, Daraen. I don't know what we would have done without you!"

"G-gehhh..." Ironbeard growled as he took a step back from Daraen's Levin Sword. However, Daraen took a step forward in response so that the lightning shaped blade continued to stay pressed up against the guy's jaw. This continued until Ironbeard backed himself up against a wall, pinned between the iron structure and the White Mage's weapon. "Where the hell did you come from?!"

"I accompanied Shulk here." Daraen retorted. "I wasn't gonna let my friend go alone, especially when he was still recovering from our last meeting. Good thing I did, else Robin wouldn't have been the only friend I lost here."

"Master!" The brunette android finally got up and she was dashing forward to attack Daraen while his back was toward her. However, Robin noticed this and leaped out in front of the android's attack, blocking her blade attack with one of his metal arms. The Mechonite armor coating his limb was strong enough to not take any noticeable damage from the blade, and her attack bounced off of him. Robin then countered by grabbing the girl's other arm and throwing her to the floor before standing atop her. She was not as strong as Robin and couldn't get out from under his foot, meaning that she couldn't come to Ironbeard's rescue.

"Tell us where the Monado is." Daraen threatened, having noticed that there wasn't a bright red sword attached to Shulk's back by this point. "Tell me, or else I'll electrify my Levin Sword. You know that metal conducts electricity, right?"

"I-It's in the back gallery!" He stuttered. "It's with the other precious weapons, just a bit farther beyond where the drones were! The password to get into the displays is 4779!"

"Don't worry, I'll get it!" Shulk replied as he took off over the Arming Glyph again. About five minutes later, Shulk returned with not only the Monado draped across his back, but a familiar pair of brown drones in his hands. Upon seeing them, Robin activated his drones and flew them over to his back. He felt whole again now that his drones had been returned.

"You'll take care of bringing this guy to justice, will you, Daraen?" Robin asked just then. The White Mage chuckled as he finally allowed a jolt of electricity to jump from his blade through Ironbeard's body, zapping the guy and causing him to fall down unconscious.

"Yep. Just a matter of handing this guy over to the cops now." The black haired tactician spun back around toward Robin and finally sheathed his sword. "Apparently he's on a most wanted list for several crimes, including theft and destruction of property. The cops will be happy to have him."

"Then it's about time I finally got out of this place once and for all~" Robin walked over to Shulk and promptly picked him up bridal style. The Monado wielder was surprised, but he didn't object to it at all. A moment later, Robin's drone wings expanded and he took to the air, crashing through a skylight in the top of the building while still holding onto Shulk before landing on the roof of the facility. The Cyborg Tactician took a deep breath of fresh air for the first time in days and then squeezed the man in his arms lovingly, who responded by hugging him back tightly with a wide grin on his face.

They were free at last. This misadventure was finally over.

Seeing as Robin didn't have to be brave anymore, he finally broke down in Shulk's arms and started to cry his metal lungs out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 3518 words. Just one more chapter where Robin finally gets to have his breakdown and reveal everything to Shulk. It'll probably be a bit shorter than other chapters in this story, as a result. Notes:
> 
> 1\. I have no idea why, but this story wasn't listed as part of the series until yesterday. My mind spaced out there, I guess. Well, at least it's fixed now.
> 
> 2\. 4779 isn't a random number for Ironbeard's password. 47 is silver's atomic number and 79 is gold's on the periodic table. Silver and gold. Yeah. What an arrogant guy.


	6. You're My Treasure

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Robin is finally truly free, meaning that he's able to drop his brave facade at last and let all his bottled up feelings come out now that he's safe with the one he loves most of all. But how will Shulk react to all the news that's being revealed to him? There's a lot to swallow, after all.

"Robin, shhh..." Shulk gently held onto Robin, who was sobbing into the Monado wielder's shoulder and staining his gray sweater with tears. Shulk's hand slowly rubbed up and down the bare back of the tactician's Mechon frame, trying to give Robin's mind something soothing to focus on as it grazed across his synthetic skin. Even then, the deluge of tears didn't seem to be slowing down any, but at least he had stopped being a completely incoherent mess. "Please tell me what's wrong..."

"I-it was... horrible in there!" Robin sniffled. "It was cramped... and smelled like burning oil... and there was nothing to do, so I lay down on my cot for most of the time I was stuck there... Just... dreaming of freedom." He had been dreaming of this moment from the time he got captured until Voniluk had mentioned that an intruder had arrived at the compound. Granted, in his dreams, it smelled a lot less like rotting garbage, but right now he didn't care. What mattered was that he was free to finally head home with the man he loved.

"I understand your concern." Shulk whispered into his ear. "I would have come sooner, but I was still recovering from using too much Ether trying to save you the day you got kidnapped. That and we didn't know where this place was until yesterday." Robin pulled his head back so that his teary eyes were staring intently into Shulk's as he continued his confession.

"...That's not the worst of it." He said in a low voice. "There's something far more terrible that he did to me... Something that I'm completely ashamed of." Before Shulk could ask, Robin slowly leaned in to whisper it into the seer's ear. It wasn't like there was anybody else around that could hear him if he said it out loud, but his shame was so great that he couldn't bear to speak it a tone above a whisper. Even then, he barely managed the three words before his voice began cracking terribly.

_"He raped me."_

Shulk's eyes grew wide with horrified shock as a loud gasp involuntarily escaped his lips. No words could escape his mouth for several seconds as Robin threw himself onto Shulk's shoulder again to cry his eyes out. "...No..." A single, barely audible word finally found its way out of the Monado wielder's lips as he continued to try wrapping his mind around Robin's unbelievable tragedy. Several seconds later, Shulk quickly wrapped his arms around Robin and squeezed him as tight as he could, tears starting to run down his own face. If it weren't for the fact that the tactician's body was made of metal, Shulk's hug might have been tight enough to actually hurt Robin.

"No!" The blond seer repeated, still tightly grasping onto his beloved. "That's completely awful! I shouldn't have lounged about as long as I did! I should have pressed for the information that led us here as soon as I had fully recovered! It's my fault something terrible happened to you and I can't forgive myself for resting easy while you were suffering..." Even though Robin had hardly gotten over what had happened, he snapped out of his funk long enough to try calming the inconsolable Monado wielder down. A metal finger gently reached up to brush a tear out of one of Shulk's magenta eyes and Robin forced a fake smile onto his face.

"Don't blame yourself for what happened to me." He said with melancholy apparent in his voice despite the gentle smile on his face. "I would rather it be me than you anyway. You're still a virgin. I'm not, nor was I before it happened. I would murder anybody who touched you the wrong way or even threatened to rape you. After all, I want to make sure that your first time is with somebody you love and when _you're_ ready for it." Shulk briskly shook his head, flicking tears out of his eyes in doing so.

"Don't say that!" He barked. "It's terrible regardless of who it happened to! Had I known, I wouldn't have left that place until I bashed that bastard's head in with the Monado several dozen times! That 'I would murder anybody who touched you the wrong way' threat is mutual!" After taking a moment to regain his breath, Shulk continued with a calmer tone of voice. "...You should press charges."

"What?"

"That bastard's getting arrested, probably as we speak. If you go down to the cops and tell them that you were raped by that bloody bastard, he'll spend even more time in jail!" Robin sighed as he gently placed a hand atop the other's dry, flaxen locks before speaking.

"Any proof that he did it is gone." He said in a low tone. "I cleaned up the scene of the crime because it was in my cell and I wanted to get some semblance of sleep, and nobody was around when it happened, I'm fairly certain. At this point, it would be his word against mine. They would be more inclined to trust me, granted, but there's still no more physical proof."

"Robin..." Shulk sighed as he stared down at the roof that he was still atop of. One look at the floor and he was quickly reminded of where they were, however, which prompted him to look up again. "Let's return home. We should continue discussing this someplace more comfortable. That and it reeks of rubbish here." As if wanting to verify what Shulk said, Robin took a brief sniff of the air and his nose quickly wrinkled in disgust.

"Ugh, you're right..." He groaned. "I could use some actual fresh air, not this tainted musk..." Before Shulk could comment, Robin reached down and scooped the Monado wielder off his feet and held onto him bridal style for the second time today. Shulk wasn't quite expecting being plucked off the roof that quickly and yelped with surprise. However, a moment later, his arms quickly wrapped around Robin's neck as the drones on the tactician's back unfolded. In the next moment, the two of them started soaring through the skies of the city back toward their home of the Super Smash Brothers Mansion.

* * *

En route, Shulk couldn't help but mention something that came to mind. "...You know, I think this is the very first time you've flown me any kind of considerable distance." Robin blinked twice as he thought about it and realized that Shulk was correct.

"...Huh. That's right." He said thoughtfully. "The only other time I can remember flying with you in my arms was back on Bionis right after I was rescued from..." Robin's voice faded out before he could say those two dreaded words that made up the name of the mechanical monstrosity that he hated so much: Obsidian Face. He resumed speaking a couple seconds later, though. "But yeah, back then, I had no idea about what my new body was truly capable of, seeing as I had just been rescued and never used it outside of that machine. I didn't want to risk dropping you, even if you would have fallen a short distance." Shulk chuckled slightly as he curled in closer to Robin's chest.

"But look at you now~" He cooed. "You're amazingly strong with this body. Your physical strength has definitely surpassed mine." That had been dangerously clear to Shulk when Robin had been pulling against him in his attempts to disrobe the Monado wielder, but Shulk didn't want to think about that too much. Instead he tried to focus on the fact that Robin was already back to the mansion from halfway across the city. Honestly, the whole situation that had occurred over the past few days would have been completely avoided if Robin took a little time to fly Shulk, Daraen, and Chrom back to the mansion one by one (as it was highly doubtful that even with Robin's mechanically enhanced strength that he probably wouldn't be able to fly all three of them at once, much less perhaps two of them), but it wasn't a complete loss, seeing as the rescue efforts had ended up putting a dangerous criminal behind bars.

Robin decided to avoid going through the front doors of the mansion, seeing as all he wanted right now was to relax and get his mind off his stresses with Shulk. If he did go through the front door, he would be mobbed by everybody trying to get his attention because they were so relieved that he was back in one piece. All of that extra attention would probably cause the poor tactician to be even more stressed out. Therefore, he flew over to the window that led into the room that the two of them lived in. Seeing as the building they lived in was behind a large and well protected gate that was specifically built to keep anybody who didn't live in the building out, the two occupants never bothered locking the window. Nobody could get in that way without making a huge racket anyway. Because the window was unlocked, however, it was easy to just open the window and fly indoors.

Once they were inside, Robin gently set Shulk down so that he could stand on his own two feet again. The seer moved over to the window to close it before turning back toward Robin and grabbing one of his metal hands. The tactician was a bit confused as he was dragged through the suite in the direction of the bedroom, and he had no time to react to Shulk literally pushing him onto the bottom bunk of their bed (and causing the drones to swoop out from underneath Robin so they didn't get crushed under his back) before jumping in on top of him. Shulk had decided that they should just relax together and get their mind off their worries rather than continue stressing over them while talking about them, essentially changing his mind from back atop the building. Not that Robin minded, seeing as the topic was hard for him to think about as it was. A loud "oof!" found its way from Robin's mouth as Shulk's weight was suddenly flung atop him, but the seer then moved aside and nestled his head atop Robin's chest, making sure that his strawlike hair brushed against the tactician's bosom. Shulk knew that Robin loved the sensation of his dry hair against synthetic skin, and it was an easy way to make him relax. Of course, it succeeded in its intention, as Robin sighed and reached his left hand up to gently rest on the seer's head, putting his engagement ring into easy view.

Even though a lot had happened to Robin over the past few days, the beautiful ring attached to one of his fingers by means of a magnet had not been removed, nor had it fallen off. In fact, it was likely that Ironbeard never even knew it was there. Robin's love for Shulk was the one thing that kept him sane while he was captured, and the fact that the ring was still there only meant to him that his love survived this tragedy intact.

"You know..." Shulk sighed thoughtfully a few minutes later to break the peaceful silence, causing Robin to look up from his ring to the young Homs who was curled up atop him. "There's a saying that goes 'one man's trash, is another person's treasure'. That man really took that saying to an extreme."

"How much of that stuff in there do you really think was trash, though?" Robin wondered aloud as his eyes wandered to the bars that held up the top bunk over them. "I didn't get a look at everything, but I'm sure there's a ton of valuable electronics and robotics and other technologically advanced things in that collection." The tactician felt a slight shrug from Shulk before he resumed speaking.

"I haven't the foggiest idea..." He said. "I was completely focused on finding you rather than gawking at the other robots being held." Shulk then slowly shook his head. "But I digress. You know what the problem with that saying I gave earlier is?"

"What's the problem?"

"It implies that by him taking you, I didn't consider you worth any kind of value to me." The seer craned his neck out to plant a gentle kiss on Robin's chin before continuing. "That couldn't be any further from the truth. You're more valuable to me than you could ever be to him. You're my treasure, and I wouldn't give you up for anything~" A sincere feeling of happiness welled up within Robin as he gently squeezed Shulk closer to him.

"Thank you." He sighed as he slowly began petting Shulk's head. "You're my treasure, too~" The Homs made a happy noise as a result of being told that, and his magenta eyes finally closed as he fell asleep atop Robin. After the tactician had gotten his tragedy completely out of his mind a couple minutes later, he too closed his eyes and fell asleep. The two of them stayed fast asleep for several hours like that, finally at peace once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And finished with 2206 words - short, as expected. Next time, tune in for the introduction of Bayonetta (briefly) and the Corrins (more extensively)! I'm still not ready to go back to Mechonis Mission Zero yet, so I'll keep moving forward with the story line for now. I don't think there's really anything to note here, so I'll just say that I hope you've enjoyed this story!


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